Poppy Appeal will still accept old £1 coins, says Royal British Legion

The Royal British Legion will continue to accept old pound coins donated to its annual Poppy Appeal after the deadline for spending them passed this week.

Hundreds of millions of the round pounds are thought to remain in circulation despite ceasing to be legal tender earlier this week.

But the coins did not become completely worthless overnight.

Poppy sellers will able to accept the old pound until 12 November, while BBC is also running a Children in Need campaign to persuade people to donate old coins to the charity.

Claire Rowcliffe, director of fundraising for the Royal British Legion, said: "We’d be delighted to turn your out-of-date pounds into poppies, commemorating the fallen while enabling us to offer vital assistance to all members of the Armed Forces community, young and old."

Some major retailers are also giving shoppers a longer window of opportunity to spend their old pound coins.

Iceland and Poundland have said they will continue to accept the round pound until 31 October, while Tesco said it would accept the old-style coins for a week after the deadline.

One pound coins were first launched on 21 April 1983 to replace £1 notes and the Royal Mint has produced more than two billion since then.

More than 400 million of the coins were thought to remain in circulation the day before the deadline.

Major banks and building societies, as well as the Post Office, have said they will continue to accept deposits of the old pound.

The new 12-sided pound coin entered circulation in March and boasts new high-tech security features to thwart counterfeiters.