feetnotes

if an egg-n-a-half and a maid-n-a-half - half a mo', auntie beeb: News at 11: the end of the ukL?

4/8/09 11:18 am - if an egg-n-a-half and a maid-n-a-half - half a mo', auntie beeb: News at 11: the end of the ukL?

the beeb's radio news round-up/headlines've been darkly foreboding, regarding the state of the "thatcher", or pound coin (sterling): apparently, coin-testers sampling the intake of vending-machines have reported that one coin in twenty is a dud, fake or forgery.
the beeb's take on this is that one in twenty pound coins in circulation may be forgeries.

but half a mo', auntie beeb - is this quite the right way to spin this particular golden thread?

should you be so unfortunate as to notice a dud pound coin in your change [a] too late to refuse it, what can you do with it?

legally, you are required to surrender forged notes and coins to the bank of england (normally via your own, or another, bank or post office); the bank's receptionist or teller should thank you for your public-spiritedness, though this is optional, and accept your private-enterprise thatcher.
which leaves you out of pocket or purse one pound - or more, depending.

alternatively, though not legally, you may attempt to pass it on in turn, by spending it. however, should they discover your malfeasance, your victims and, for some reason, hmq lizzie II, her ministers and officials, including the police also take a dim view of this, and it was historically an offence - one which sir isaac newton found to be of great gravity - and subject to the death penalty.

not only might feeding slot-machines and one-armed bandits with them seem somewhat safer, therefore, and less liable to immediate execution of sentence, but it's also potentially quite lucrative, if that which is obtained from the may be sold on for significantly more than the cost of the forgeries..

the more likely correct interpretation of the statistic is surely

"at least 95% of all pound coins in circulation genuine"

[a] - they're generally made of lead, which doesn't take so sharp an image, so they tend to be a bit "blurry" in detail; and the brassy colour is but a very thin skin: so a scratch will reveal the initially grey-silvery base metal below (though this oxidises to the duller grey of litharge)

Current Music: "everything i am" - the plastic penny

Current Mood: curious

numismatic

4/8/09 11:31 am (UTC) - miss_t_ide

Vending machines are usually quite fussy about the coins they take, sometimes refusing genuine ones. I'm quite surprised if they find such a high percentage of fake ones in their takings.

The pay and display machine in the carpark at Cambridge Station is a particularly fussy animal. It is £7 to park for a day and it doesn't take notes, so you have to feed it 7 £1 coins, unless you want to pay by credit card (or visa delta- but not maestro). There have been several mornings where, armed with a bag of legitimate £1 coins (I checked them!), I stood there at 5:30am, feeding about 14 of them into the machine until 7 of them were accepted!

4/9/09 12:08 am (UTC) - feetnotes

"feeding" parking meters used to be some sort of an offence; i believe, a pretty minor one (and if i ever did know, vegetablisation's stolen the precise definition of the misdemeanor); but if there're a fair few dutch metal uns in circulation, yes, i can imagine you'd get stuck pushing coin after coin in, with no (or very few) really obviously questionable coins in evidence.
and more still, if the quality control at llantrisant isn't too hot, and allows rather greater variations in weight of thatchers, than is accepted in real sovereigns.
(the machines in car parks certainly won't accept the lead duds.)

the vending machines that i suspect have nowhere near rigorous enough anti-forgery protection are the largely wooden, wall-mounted affairs that pubs'n'clubs quite commonly use for selling cigarettes: they may only be capable of checking for wrongly-sized coins.

i dunno what level of protection their free-standing machines have, nor the chocolate, sweets, sandwich and other snack-vending machines in colleges and offices.

4/8/09 11:51 am (UTC) - kaiserdad

They have been making them in Sheffield foundries for years, they don't use lead they use Dutch metal a copper alloy that looks like gold (used to make bearings)

4/8/09 11:44 pm (UTC) - feetnotes

so that's how you're able to keep

kaiserdog in even half of the luxury he demands, desires and destroys!

4/8/09 11:52 am (UTC) - gmh

For this reason, I take care to scan pound coins on being given them, which wins me no friends, but does mean that I don't often have this problem.

On the occasions that I do get one, I put them to one side and hand them in at a police station when I get the chance (I fence at a police station three times a week, so this isn't too difficult).

I know that this is somewhat unusual, but my conscience really won't let me pass on dud coins; if I fail to notice them, I feel I ought to take the hit for it.

4/8/09 11:38 pm (UTC) - feetnotes

you fence at a police station?

isn't this taking a totally over-the-top and most out-of-character risk? [a]

[a] - or is it police seizures you're ah, "recycling" (with donations to their holidays and retirement fund)?

(gd&r - well, ambles slowly away...)

Log in