1985 Leek £1 Coin
The 1985 Leek £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 228.4 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1985
- Circulation mintage
- 228,430,749
- Value band
- Face value
- Composition
- Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel)
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1985 Leek £1 worth?
With 228.4 million made, the 1985 Leek £1 is common. It has no collector value beyond the pound itself. Since 15 October 2017 the round pound can no longer be spent in shops. Only uncirculated coins from sets, genuine errors and the scarce dates bring more.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with crisp edge lettering
- Original Royal Mint pack or set
- A genuine mint error confirmed by an expert
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 1985 Leek £1 rare?
- No. 228.4 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1985 Leek £1 coins were made?
- 228,430,749 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 1985 Leek £1 made of?
- Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel). It weighs 9.5 g and measures 22.5 mm.
- Is the 1985 Leek £1 still legal tender?
- No. The round pound stopped being legal tender on 15 October 2017. It can no longer be spent in shops; collectors still want the scarce dates.
Why the 1985 Leek £1 was made
Wales had its turn on the pound in 1985. The leek is one of the Welsh national emblems, worn on St David's Day. Leslie Durbin's design set it inside the same royal diadem used for the Scottish thistle a year earlier. The rotation now ran in a set order: United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and then England. Wales also got its own edge inscription, written in Welsh rather than Latin, which made this the first round pound with an edge inscription in Welsh.
Something else changed in 1985 as well. The Royal Mint introduced Raphael Maklouf's new portrait of the Queen across the whole coinage and the Leek was the first pound to carry it. Demand for pound coins was still enormous while notes were being phased out, so 228,430,749 were struck for circulation. Only the 1983 Royal Arms beat that total among round pounds. The design came back in 1990 with the same portrait, but in well under half the numbers. Size and metal stayed exactly as before: 22.5 mm, 9.5 g and nickel-brass all the way through.
How to recognize it
The reverse shows a leek rising through an ornate diadem, with ONE POUND at the foot. On the obverse is the Maklouf portrait, which shows the Queen wearing the George IV State Diadem rather than a tiara. The edge reads PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD, "true am I to my country", a line from the Welsh national anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. Welsh designs are the only round pounds with that inscription, so a leek with a Latin edge is a warning sign. Separating 1985 from 1990 means reading the date, since both years share the reverse and the portrait. Worn leeks tend to lose the fine lines on the leaves first, while the diadem usually stays readable for much longer.
The other side carries Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1985 to 1997.
1985 Leek £1 by the numbers
By the numbers, the 1985 Leek £1 ranks 40th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 1984 Thistle £1 (146.3 million); the next more common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 (443.1 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 1.9 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 244 times fewer than this one.
It was the only circulating commemorative £1 coin dated 1985.
What to check on your 1985 Leek £1
- Read the edge. It should say PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD; an edge that doesn't match the design is the quickest sign of a fake.
- Turn the coin over on its vertical axis: on a genuine pound the design side is the same way up as the portrait. A tilted or upside-down reverse points to a copy.
- Weigh it: a genuine round pound weighs 9.5 g. Fakes are often light, soft in detail or a slightly different color.
- Remember that round pounds stopped being legal tender on 15 October 2017, so a common one has no use in shops.
Second only to the 1983 coin in numbers, the 1985 Leek is common and circulated examples are face value coins. Collectors who chase round pounds by date want one, of course, but there is no shortage. Look for an unworn coin with crisp veins on the leaf and a sharp rim if you want a nice example; Royal Mint annual sets are the easiest source. As with every round pound, fakes existed. A genuine Welsh coin has deep, clear edge letters rather than shallow or smudged ones. The leek's fine lines should be distinct too.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 1985 |
| Circulation mintage | 228,430,749 |
| Composition | Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel) |
| Weight | 9.5 g |
| Diameter | 22.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Lettered: PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD |
| Portrait | Maklouf |
Frequently asked questions
What is written on the edge of the 1985 Leek £1?
The edge reads PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD, Welsh for "true am I to my country". The line comes from Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, the Welsh national anthem. It appears on the Welsh round pounds of 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2000 and on the 2013 Leek and Daffodil.
Which was the first pound coin with the Maklouf portrait?
The 1985 Leek. Raphael Maklouf's portrait, with the Queen wearing a diadem, replaced the Machin effigy on all UK coins that year. It stayed on round pounds through 1997 before Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait took over in 1998.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.