While we're still getting used to new five pound notes, it has been announced our pound coin is also changing.
The new coin has 12 sides, will be made of two metals and is thought to be the most secure coin in the world.
The reverse side of the coin – the tails – shows the English rose, the Welsh leek, the Scottish thistle and the Northern Irish shamrock emerging from one stem within a royal coronet.
It is the first replacement in more than 30 years and will start being circulated in March 2017.
By autumn next year, you won’t be able to use the old coin in shops.
There will be problems for some businesses, however, as the new coin’s design won’t fit into coin-operated machines such as shop trolleys, photo booths, parking meters, lockers and vending machines.
The Royal Mint has launched a new website urging businesses to get ready now, or risk problems in March.
Jonathan Hart from the Automatic Vendors Association said operators will send out engineers to upgrade them.
He expects the upgrades to cost millions – although operators should make their costs back thanks to the reduction in forged coins.
Older machines will have to be temporarily removed in order to be fixed, he added, although others can be fixed on site.
Hart explained: “When you put your £1 coin in a vending machine, it goes down a ramp, almost like a motorway. If the machine recognises the coin, it is allocated into a plastic tube where all the £1 coins are kept. If it is not accepted it just comes out again.
“Among these tubes, there is usually at least one spare for upgrades. During the initial period, the new £1 will go into one of the spare tubes. Then an engineer will switch the temporary tube off."
There will be 1.5 billion new coins produced, and the new coins will hopefully reduce the damaging costs caused by counterfeits.
