2008 Royal Arms £1 Coin
The 2008 Royal Arms £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 3.91 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2008
- Circulation mintage
- 3,910,000
- 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 2008 Royal Arms £1 worth?
With 3.91 million made, the 2008 Royal Arms £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 2008 Royal Arms £1 rare?
- No. 3.91 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2008 Royal Arms £1 coins were made?
- 3,910,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2008 Royal Arms £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 2008 Royal Arms £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 2008 Royal Arms £1 was made
The round pound arrived in April 1983 to replace the Bank of England £1 note. Its very first reverse was Eric Sewell's version of the Royal Arms. Over the years that followed, the Royal Mint changed the design almost every year, cycling through emblems for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Royal Arms came back at intervals as the United Kingdom design. By 2008 the coin had been in pockets and purses for a quarter of a century.
That same year British coinage went through its biggest visual change since decimalization. Matthew Dent's new reverses, built around the shield of the Royal Arms, were rolled out across the coins from 1p to £1. The old pattern of round pound did not vanish overnight, though. Sewell's Royal Arms was struck one last time with a 2008 date, so two quite different £1 coins carry that year. With 3,910,000 made for circulation, the Royal Arms version was produced in far smaller numbers than the new shield coin. Many people only noticed it years later, when old change was sorted ahead of the round pound's withdrawal.
How to recognize it
The reverse shows the crowned royal arms in an ornamental arrangement that fills most of the coin, with the denomination ONE POUND below. That crown is the quickest way to separate it from the other 2008 pound, Matthew Dent's design, which shows only the quartered shield with nothing above or around it. The edge reads DECUS ET TUTAMEN, Latin for 'an ornament and a safeguard'. The phrase comes from Virgil and has been used on English coin edges since the reign of Charles II, when it was meant as a warning against clipping. On the obverse is Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen, with his initials IRB under the neck. The reverse is Eric Sewell's original 1983 design, repeated here for its final outing.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2008 Royal Arms £1 by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2008 Royal Arms £1 ranks 4th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2010 London £1 (2.63 million); the next more common is the 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 (5.18 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 113 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 4.2 times fewer than this one.
It shared 2008 with 1 other circulating £1 coin design: the Shield of the Royal Arms (43.8 million). The 2008 Royal Arms £1 was the scarcest of the year.
What to check on your 2008 Royal Arms £1
- Read the edge. It should say DECUS ET TUTAMEN; 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 just under 4 million, this is a low mintage for a round pound, although the London, Cardiff and Edinburgh capital cities coins are scarcer still. Collectors are happy to have one, but a worn example remains close to face value in collecting terms. Bright, unmarked coins draw more interest. Be careful with any round pound: the Royal Mint estimated that roughly one in thirty in circulation near the end was fake. Check that the edge lettering is sharp and evenly spaced. Turn the coin over side to side and the reverse should sit upright, not at an odd angle to the portrait.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2008 |
| Circulation mintage | 3,910,000 |
| Composition | Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel) |
| Weight | 9.5 g |
| Diameter | 22.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Lettered: DECUS ET TUTAMEN |
| Portrait | Rank-Broadley |
Other 2008 £1 coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 Coin | 43,827,300 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
Why are there two different 2008 £1 coins?
In 2008 the Royal Mint introduced Matthew Dent's shield design but also struck Eric Sewell's older Royal Arms one final time. The crowned Royal Arms had a circulation mintage of 3,910,000, while the plain shield was made in the tens of millions.
Can I still spend a 2008 Royal Arms pound?
No. Every round pound, this one included, stopped being legal tender on 15 October 2017. Shops will refuse it. Some banks may still accept round pounds from their own customers as a deposit, so ask yours before trying, or simply keep it as a collectible.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.