145 million old £1 coins still not returned – how to make them spendable again

Shops haven't accepted the old round £1 coins since October 2017, but there are still millions out there which could be lurking in piggybanks or down the back of sofas. 

The Royal Mint says 24 million of the old coins have been returned over the past year, but as of the end of July 2019, 145 million are still out there.

For full info on choosing a bank account and our current top picks, see our Best Bank Accounts guide. And if you think you might have found a rare £1 coin which could be a collector's item, see our 2017 blog Is your old £1 coin worth MORE than £1?

I've got an old £1 coin – what should I do? 

If you have an old £1 coin, you should still be able to deposit it in your bank account. 

It's technically up to individual banks whether they still accept old £1 coins. But all of the major banks – including Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Clydesdale Bank, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, NatWest, RBS, Santander and Yorkshire Bank – told us they will let customers deposit the coins into their bank accounts.

The Post Office has also told us it allows customers who bank with any of the following to deposit the old pound coins into their accounts at Post Office branches (see more on how this works in our Little-known ways to bank at the Post Office blog):

• 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

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 that 145 million coins is a small proportion of the overall volume, adding: "We expect returns for a number of years to come."