2010 London £1 Coin
The 2010 London £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 2.63 million made. Value band: small premium. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2010
- Circulation mintage
- 2,635,000
- Value band
- Small premium
- 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 2010 London £1 worth?
At 2.63 million, the 2010 London £1 has a smaller run than most £1 coins, so collectors pay a small premium for it, especially in uncirculated condition. Well circulated examples sit close to face value.
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 2010 London £1 rare?
- It is scarcer than most £1 coins. Collectors pay a small premium for good examples.
- How many 2010 London £1 coins were made?
- 2,635,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2010 London £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 2010 London £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 2010 London £1 was made
Between 2004 and 2007 the round pound carried a set of four bridges, one for each part of the United Kingdom. For 2010 and 2011 the Royal Mint chose capital cities instead, using the coat of arms of London, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh. The designer was Stuart Devlin, the Australian-born goldsmith who had designed the reverses of Australia's first decimal coins in 1966. London and Belfast came first in 2010, with Cardiff and Edinburgh following a year later.
The London coin uses the arms of the City of London, the historic Square Mile with its own Lord Mayor and its own ancient institutions. It is not the arms of Greater London as a whole, which surprises a lot of people. Only 2,635,000 were struck for circulation, a low figure for any £1 coin. Few people noticed at the time, because the coins mixed quietly into change. Interest grew later as collectors realized how scarce the capital cities pounds were compared with the shield pounds struck in their tens of millions.
How to recognize it
Stuart Devlin's reverse is built around the shield of the City of London, the cross of St George with a sword in the upper corner. The sword is usually linked to St Paul, the city's patron saint. The edge gives you a second check. Instead of the usual DECUS ET TUTAMEN, it reads DOMINE DIRIGE NOS, the City of London's motto, which means 'Lord, guide us'. The obverse carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait with the 2010 date. If you see a cross with a sword but the edge says something else, treat the coin with suspicion, because a mismatched edge is a common mark of a forgery.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2010 London £1 by the numbers
In mintage terms the 2010 London £1 ranks 3rd lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2011 Cardiff £1 (1.61 million); the next more common is the 2008 Royal Arms £1 (3.91 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 168 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 2.8 times fewer than this one.
It was released in 2010 alongside 2 other circulating £1 coin designs: the Belfast (6.21 million) and the Shield of the Royal Arms (57.1 million). The 2010 London £1 was the scarcest of the year.
Within the 2010 to 2011 capital cities pounds, it ranks 3rd scarcest, behind the Edinburgh and Cardiff.
What to check on your 2010 London £1
- Read the edge. It should say DOMINE DIRIGE NOS; 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 2,635,000 struck, the London pound is among the lowest mintages of any circulating round pound, behind only Cardiff and Edinburgh. Circulated examples attract a small premium from collectors completing the capital cities set. Clean, unworn coins draw more. Brilliant uncirculated coins came in Royal Mint packs and the 2010 annual set. Those have smooth, unmarked fields and a bright original surface, unlike a coin from change with its scuffs and dull tone. Fakes of round pounds were common, so check the edge inscription, the sharpness of the sword and cross and the alignment of the two sides.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2010 |
| Circulation mintage | 2,635,000 |
| Composition | Nickel-brass (70% copper, 24.5% zinc, 5.5% nickel) |
| Weight | 9.5 g |
| Diameter | 22.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Lettered: DOMINE DIRIGE NOS |
| Portrait | Rank-Broadley |
Other 2010 £1 coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 Coin | 57,120,000 | Face value |
| 2010 Belfast £1 Coin | 6,205,000 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
Is the London £1 coin rare?
It is scarce for a pound coin. Only 2,635,000 were struck for circulation in 2010, compared with tens of millions for the standard shield design. Collectors value it, though Cardiff and Edinburgh from 2011 had even lower mintages.
What does DOMINE DIRIGE NOS mean?
It is Latin for 'Lord, guide us' and is the motto of the City of London. It appears as the edge inscription on the 2010 London pound in place of the DECUS ET TUTAMEN used on most round pounds.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.