# What is a UK Pound Coin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046 "2006-03-19T21:40:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/1 "2006-03-19T21:40:27Z")
Okay, it’s a coin worth a pound, but is a pound coin the same thing as a Guinea? The coin was mentioned in a recent rerun of a Midsomer Mystery, and Barnaby kidded an old geezer who was visiting his house over the holidays, that he (the old man) swallowed one of **two** pound coins in a Christmas pudding of some sort. Of course there was just one coin and the geezer had not swallowed it. But Barnaby put a rigged metal detector to the geezer’s gut and caused it to go off, thus giving a false positive, startling the old man for a moment. If the man had indeed swallowed the pound coin, would it have activated a legitimate metal detector if it were put to his belly? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/2 "2006-03-19T21:44:47Z")
The pound coin replaced £1 banknotes some twenty-ish years ago (although Scottish £1 notes are still in circulation - there’s another thread from the other day which discusses this). It is nothing directly to do with the Guinea: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > In the Great Recoinage of 1816, the guinea was replaced as the major unit of currency by the pound. > > Even after the coin ceased to circulate, the name was long used to indicate the amount of 21 shillings (£1.05 in decimalised currency). The guinea had an aristocratic overtone; professional fees and payment for land, horses and art were often quoted in guineas until decimalisation in 1971. It is still quoted in the pricing and sale of racehorses, and many major horse races in both Great Britain and Ireland bear names ending in “1,000 Guineas” or “2,000 Guineas,” even though the values of their purses today are much higher. > **[Guinea (coin)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guineas)** > > The guinea (/ˈɡɪniː/ ; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where much of the gold used to make the coins was sourced. It was the first English machine-struck gold coin, originally worth one pound sterling, equal to twenty shillings, but rises in the price of gold relative to silver caused the value o When Britai... As to Midsomer Murders, or metal detectors, I’ve no idea! ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/3 "2006-03-19T21:47:31Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > The pound coin replaced £1 banknotes some twenty-ish years ago (although Scottish £1 notes are still in circulation - there’s another thread from the other day which discusses this). It is nothing directly to do with the Guinea: > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guineas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guineas) > As to Midsomer Murders, or metal detectors, I’ve no idea! One out of two ain’t bad. Thanks, **GorillaMan**. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/4 "2006-03-19T21:49:27Z")
A guinea is an old (gold) coin worth twenty-one shillings (or 105% of a pound.) The modern pound coin is a much more recent innovation. It’s not precious metal, but it is metal - it’s 9.5 grams of nickel/brass alloy, 70% copper, about 25% zinc and about 5% nickel. I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t show up on a metal detector. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/5 "2006-03-19T22:02:38Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#): > > A guinea is an old (gold) coin worth twenty-one shillings (or 105% of a pound.) > > The modern pound coin is a much more recent innovation. It’s not precious metal, but it is metal - it’s 9.5 grams of nickel/brass alloy, 70% copper, about 25% zinc and about 5% nickel. I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t show up on a metal detector. Um… the last Guinea coins, the so-called “spade Guineas,” were minted in 1796. Between 1815 and 1932, the U.K. issued a gold coin valued at one pound, called the Sovereign or the Pound. Since 1957 Sovereigns have been issued not as legal tender but as investment/bullion coinage. The nickel-brass pound coin issued since 1983 replaces it as the legal tender coinage. Given the date of the story referenced, the allusion is probably to a “Pound,” i.e., a Sovereign. Here’s a quick history of the coin (from, of all places, an Australian stamp dealer): [http://www.australianstamp.com/Coin-web/history/sovhist.htm](http://www.australianstamp.com/Coin-web/history/sovhist.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/6 "2006-03-19T22:33:31Z")
As stated, a guinea was equal to one pound plus one shilling (i.e. 21 shillings). Certain prices (e.g. houses, horses, suits) were always quoted in guineas. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/7 "2006-03-19T22:38:25Z")
Horses and horse race prizes still are in England. And the big auction houses did until very recently - they might even still do it. Mad but traditional. What can you do? ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/8 "2006-03-19T22:44:57Z")
Thank you all very much. ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/9 "2006-03-19T23:24:08Z")
> [@BarnOwl](#): > > The coin was mentioned in a recent rerun of a Midsomer Mystery, and Barnaby kidded an old geezer who was visiting his house over the holidays, that he (the old man) swallowed one of **two** pound coins in a Christmas pudding of some sort. That’s inflation for you, in my day my mother only used to put a [tanner](http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/pics/six2.html#qe) in the pudding. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/10 "2006-03-19T23:28:52Z")
My family actually has a “Christmas sixpence” specifically for the pudding. Apart from my late grandmother, who was from the Caribbean and put about a dozen little silver animals in hers, that would stab most of the family in the gums during the course of the meal. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/11 "2006-03-20T01:24:02Z")
I’d like to say that Midsomer is supposed to be a charming English village, yet its murder rate per head of population probably makes it the most dangerous place in the world. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/12 "2006-03-20T02:23:00Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Mad but traditional. What can you do? What a perfect description of the English. 🙂 I can say that. I am one. Well, all my grandparents were. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/13 "2006-03-20T02:32:16Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I’d like to say that Midsomer is supposed to be a charming English village, yet its murder rate per head of population probably makes it the most dangerous place in the world. :rolleyes: I was going to counter with Oxford, but the head count has to be much, much higher than Midsomer’s. Whose murders are more intriguing - Barnaby’s or Morse’s? I think the latter, but I’m open. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/14 "2006-03-20T04:12:48Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I’d like to say that Midsomer is supposed to be a charming English village, yet its murder rate per head of population probably makes it the most dangerous place in the world. :rolleyes: Actually, Midsomer is a fictional English **county** full of picturesque villiages. Every episode is set in a different village in Midsomer. One is set in Midsommer Thisford. The next is set in Midsomer Thatville. The next is set in Midsomer Theothertown, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/15 "2006-03-20T09:38:52Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Given the date of the story referenced, the allusion is probably to a “Pound,” i.e., a Sovereign. Here’s a quick history of the coin (from, of all places, an Australian stamp dealer): [http://www.australianstamp.com/Coin-web/history/sovhist.htm](http://www.australianstamp.com/Coin-web/history/sovhist.htm) Not really. Midsomer Murders is a contemporary series, which has only been running since 1997 – when they say “pound” they definately mean the modern pound. ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-uk-pound-coin/349046/16 "2006-03-20T17:40:58Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d like to say that Midsomer is supposed to be a charming English village, yet its murder rate per head of population probably makes it the most dangerous place in the world. Midsomer is twinned with Cabot Cove in Maine.