2008 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 Coin
The 2008 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 43.8 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
- 43,827,300
- 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 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 worth?
With 43.8 million made, the 2008 Shield of the 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 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 rare?
- No. 43.8 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2008 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 coins were made?
- 43,827,300 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2008 Shield of the 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 Shield of the 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 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 was made
In 2005 the Royal Mint opened a public competition to redesign the reverses of the everyday coins from 1p to £1. The winner was Matthew Dent, a young graphic designer with an idea that changed how people looked at their change. He took the shield from the Royal Arms and split it across the six smaller coins, so that laid out in the right order they piece together like a jigsaw. The £1 was the one coin in the set to show the complete shield on its own.
The new designs reached change in 2008, which happened to be the round pound's twenty-fifth year. Production was heavy from the start: 43,827,300 shield pounds were struck for circulation with the 2008 date. For the rest of the round pound's life, Dent's shield served as the standard reverse, appearing every year from 2008 to 2015 while special designs such as the capital cities and floral emblems came and went alongside it. If you picture a late round pound, this is very likely the design you have in mind.
How to recognize it
The reverse is simply the shield of the Royal Arms, with ONE POUND beneath it. The shield is quartered: the three lions of England in the top left and bottom right, the rampant lion of Scotland top right and the harp of Ireland bottom left. Wales has no quarter of its own on the Royal Arms, a point people often raise when they first study the coin. There is no crown and there are no supporters, which separates it from the Royal Arms pounds of 2008 and 2015. As on every round pound, the date is on the portrait side, next to Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen. The edge reads DECUS ET TUTAMEN.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2008 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 by the numbers
Measured by how many were made, the 2008 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 ranks 25th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 1987 Oak Tree £1 (39.3 million); the next more common is the 1997 Three Lions £1 (57.1 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 10 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 47 times fewer than this one.
2008 brought 1 other circulating £1 coin design: the Royal Arms (3.91 million). The 2008 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 was the most plentiful of the year.
What to check on your 2008 Shield of the 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.
With nearly 44 million made, the 2008 shield pound is a common coin and a circulated one carries no premium. Some collectors keep one because it is the first year of the design. A clean example from a 2008 annual set shows the fine detail of the lions far better than a coin that spent nine years in tills. Because the shield was the everyday design, forgers copied it too. A shield pound dated earlier than 2008 can only be a fake, since the design did not exist before then. Also watch for soft, blurred lions and a color that looks too yellow.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2008 |
| Circulation mintage | 43,827,300 |
| 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 Royal Arms £1 Coin | 3,910,000 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
Who designed the shield £1 coin?
Matthew Dent designed it after winning a Royal Mint public competition launched in 2005. His set from 1p to £1 splits the shield of the Royal Arms across the smaller coins, while the £1 shows the whole shield. It first appeared in 2008.
How do the 2008 coins fit together into a shield?
Lay out the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p in the right arrangement and their reverses join to form the shield of the Royal Arms. The round pound completes the idea by showing the whole shield in one piece.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.