You have 78 days left to spend your old £1 coins

If you are one of those people who like to collect their loose change in a jar then this news could be very important to you.

All of the old-fashioned round £1 coins will soon become obsolete and lose their monetary value.

In less than three months the old coins will no longer be accepted and shops will have a right to refuse them.

If you feel that you have nothing to spend them on, you can always bank or donate them, just make sure you get rid of them.

From October 15 only banks and Post Offices will accept the original coins.

The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Jones, visited a coin storage facility in Belfast on Wednesday and urged the public to spend their coins before the deadline.

To have more new coins in circulation than old at this point is great news. However, with less than 100 days to go, the clock is ticking

We are urging the public to spend, bank or donate their old pound coins and asking businesses who are yet to do so, to update their systems before the old coin ceases to be legal tender.

The new coins, which have a unique shape and design. were introduced by The Royal Mint to help combat counterfeits.

According to the BBC, one in forty of the previous coins was thought to be a fake.

The new version, which is claimed to be the most 'most secure coin in the world', is now being put into mass production.

The Mint are striking 1.5 billion new coins which include special security features such as a hologram, micro-lettering inside both rims and a material which can be detected when electronically scanned by coin-counting or payment machines.

So, if you have any of those old coins knocking about make sure they are gone within the next 78 days, otherwise you'll be kicking yourself.

HT BBC Sky News

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