1989 Thistle £1 Coin
The 1989 Thistle £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 70.6 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1989
- Circulation mintage
- 70,580,501
- 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 1989 Thistle £1 worth?
With 70.6 million made, the 1989 Thistle £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 1989 Thistle £1 rare?
- No. 70.6 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1989 Thistle £1 coins were made?
- 70,580,501 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 1989 Thistle £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 1989 Thistle £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 1989 Thistle £1 was made
In 1989 the national cycle began again with Scotland and the Royal Mint simply reused Leslie Durbin's thistle from 1984. Repeating the designs kept production simple and gave each nation a regular place in the rotation. It also means you can find two Thistle pounds that look nearly identical at first glance. The difference sits on the other side of the coin. From this point each of Durbin's national emblems was used twice, five years apart, before a new set of heraldic designs took over in 1994.
By 1989 every British coin carried Raphael Maklouf's portrait, so this Thistle shows the Queen in a diadem rather than the Machin tiara of 1984. The mintage was 70,580,501 for circulation, about half the 1984 total but still a large figure. It was also a big jump from the very low runs of 1986 and 1988, nearly ten times the 1988 Shield. Specifications did not change: 22.5 mm, 9.5 g and nickel-brass with a lettered edge. Like every round pound, it lost legal tender status on 15 October 2017, when the 12-sided coin took over completely.
How to recognize it
The reverse is unchanged from 1984: a thistle growing from a royal diadem above the words ONE POUND, designed by Leslie Durbin. The obverse portrait is the clue. Here the Queen wears the George IV State Diadem in Maklouf's effigy and she looks noticeably older than in the Machin image. Turn the coin and the edge should read NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT, which means "no one provokes me with impunity" and is the motto tied to Scotland's Order of the Thistle. A thistle coin with a Latin edge reading DECUS ET TUTAMEN is not right. Also check the alignment: turn a genuine pound over on its vertical axis and the portrait and the thistle should both be upright.
The other side carries Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1985 to 1997.
1989 Thistle £1 by the numbers
In mintage terms the 1989 Thistle £1 ranks 30th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2001 Celtic Cross and Torc £1 (64 million); the next more common is the 2002 Three Lions £1 (77.8 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 6.3 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 75 times fewer than this one.
It was the only circulating commemorative £1 coin dated 1989.
What to check on your 1989 Thistle £1
- Read the edge. It should say NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT; 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.
At about 70.6 million, the 1989 Thistle is a plentiful date and spent coins carry no more than face value. You will need it to fill a date run, but it should not be hard to find. Clean, unworn pieces are the ones worth keeping and those usually come from Royal Mint annual sets rather than from circulation. A useful habit with any round pound is to hold it edge-on and check that the inscription matches the design. Mismatches were a common sign of a fake.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 1989 |
| Circulation mintage | 70,580,501 |
| Composition | Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel) |
| Weight | 9.5 g |
| Diameter | 22.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Lettered: NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT |
| Portrait | Maklouf |
Frequently asked questions
Is the 1989 Thistle £1 worth more than face value?
Generally no. With 70,580,501 struck for circulation it is a common date. A circulated coin is a face value piece, while a fully unworn example in original set packaging may interest date collectors but is not a rarity.
Whose portrait is on the 1989 pound coin?
Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used on UK coins from 1985 to 1997. It shows her wearing the George IV State Diadem, which is the easiest way to tell the 1989 Thistle from the 1984 coin with Machin's portrait.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.