Yahoo News Cracked, warped and missing middles: thousands of new £1 coins 'have major production flaws'
It was the coin which was supposed to be indestructible - impervious to forgery with its newly minted 12-sided form.
But after introducing them with a great deal of fanfare, the Royal Mint has been left red faced after thousands of the new £1 coins were produced with major flaws.
After being Some of the coins appear cracked, warped or have the middle missing after the centres fell out.
Officials have admitted faults had crept into the minting process. Owners of £1 coins with centres missing have been putting them up for sale on eBay, with some reportedly selling for almost £2,500.
The 12-sided coin was dubbed “the most secure in the world” at its launch in late March and there will be 1.5 billion of them in circulation within months.
The new features include a hologram image on the coin, micro-lettering on the side and a "hidden high security feature".
John Taylor, a coin collector, has a £1 with a missing centre and others with “misstrikes”.
"It is a definite Royal Mint error," he told the Sun. "The sellers claimed they had come from a sealed bag from the bank, which in turn came from the Royal Mint.”
The Cardiff-based Royal Mint, which is responsible for striking the nation’s coins, played down the furore.
"We have tight quality controls in place," a spokesman told The Sun. "However, variances will always occur in a small number of coins, particularly in the striking process, due to the high volumes and speed of production.”
The flaws come after the Bank of England was accused of dumbing down after it chose to remove punctuation from a quote by Sir Winston Churchill printed on its new £5 notes.
The omission attracted complaints from keen-eyed members of the public.
From October 15 this year, the old £1 can no longer be used in shops. From then you can still take them to banks or the Post Office to get them changed for new versions.
However, the Royal Mint would "encourage you to use your coins or return them to your bank" before this date.
According to Mastercard, there is £1.1bn sitting in the old style coins in people's homes. Its survey showed that 87pc of people were not aware that they needed to cash them in.
