169 million old £1 coins still out there - here's how to make them spendable again

Shops stopped accepting the round £1 coins on 15 October 2017 and could no longer give them out as change.

But 169 million of them still haven't been returned to the Royal Mint – suggesting many may be hiding in piggybanks or down the back of sofas.

 – see our blog to find out if you could get a small fortune for yours.

I have an old £1 coin – what should I do?

The Royal Mint recommends that if you have an old £1 coin, you go directly to your bank to exchange it.

Specific arrangements vary from bank to bank, but major ones including Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Clydesdale Bank, Halifax, HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Lloyds, the Post Office, RBS, Ulster Bank and Yorkshire Bank have confirmed to us that they will let their customers deposit the old coins into their bank accounts.

The Post Office has also told us it can allow customers who bank with any of the following to deposit the old pound coins into their accounts at Post Office branches:

• Allied Irish Bank (GB)

• Bank of Ireland

• Bank of Scotland

• Barclays

• CAF

• Cahoot

• Cashplus

• Clydesdale Bank

• Co-op Bank

• Danske Bank

• First Direct

• First Trust Bank

• Halifax

• Handelsbanken

• HSBC

• Lloyds Bank

• Metro Bank

• Nationwide

• NatWest

• Royal Bank of Scotland

• Santander

• Smile

• Think Money

• TSB

• Ulster Bank

• Virgin Money

• Yorkshire Bank

It's worth noting that coins are NOT like old bank notes, which can be returned to the Bank of England for their face value for an unlimited period of time after they go out of circulation.

What does the Royal Mint say?

A Royal Mint spokesperson said: "We do not expect that all round £1 coins in circulation at the time of the transition will be returned to the Mint.

"Based on the returns of other demonetised coins we expect there to be some returns for a number of years to come as people find these."