2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 Coin
The 2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 is a circulating £1 coin with 5.78 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2014
- Circulation mintage
- 5,780,000
- 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 2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 worth?
With 5.78 million made, the 2014 Flax and Shamrock £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 2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 rare?
- No. 5.78 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 coins were made?
- 5,780,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2014 Flax and Shamrock £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 2014 Flax and Shamrock £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 2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 was made
Northern Ireland's floral pound arrived in 2014, the second year of Timothy Noad's floral emblems series. It pairs two plants with deep roots in the province. Flax was the raw material of the linen industry that once employed tens of thousands in Ulster and helped Belfast grow into a major city. The shamrock is linked by tradition to St Patrick, who is said to have used its three leaves to explain the Holy Trinity.
The round pound had shown Northern Irish flax before, on Leslie Durbin's 1986 design, which used a single flax plant. The 2014 coin built on that by adding the shamrock. The Royal Mint struck 5,780,000 for circulation, the highest total of the four floral pounds, though still small next to the shield pounds of the same year. It was released with Scotland's Thistle and Bluebell coin, completing a set of four that had begun with England and Wales in 2013. The series turned out to be the last group of national designs for the round pound before the 12-sided coin replaced it.
How to recognize it
Timothy Noad's reverse shows a flax plant with its small flowers alongside sprigs of shamrock, with the denomination ONE POUND. Unlike the Welsh and Scottish floral coins, this one keeps the standard edge, DECUS ET TUTAMEN. The obverse shows Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen and the date 2014. Do not mix it up with the 1986 Northern Ireland pound, which shows flax alone and has a different date. A shamrock design dated 2013, or one with a motto edge, is not a genuine combination. The flower heads and the three shamrock leaves should be crisp on a good coin.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2014 Flax and Shamrock £1 ranks 8th lowest of 41 circulating £1 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2013 Leek and Daffodil £1 (5.27 million); the next more common is the 2010 Belfast £1 (6.21 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1983 Royal Arms £1 with 443.1 million, about 77 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Edinburgh £1 with 935,000, 6.2 times fewer than this one.
It shared 2014 with 2 other circulating £1 coin designs: the Thistle and Bluebell (5.18 million) and the Shield of the Royal Arms (79.3 million). 1 of them had a smaller run.
Within the 2013 to 2014 floral pounds, it ranks 4th scarcest, behind the Thistle and Bluebell, Rose and Oak and Leek and Daffodil.
What to check on your 2014 Flax and Shamrock £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 5,780,000, the Flax and Shamrock has the highest mintage of the four floral pounds. A worn example is a face value piece in collecting terms and is wanted mainly for completing the floral set. Unworn coins earn a small premium. Brilliant uncirculated examples were sold in Royal Mint packs and the 2014 annual set, with bright fields and sharp leaf detail. Because it shares its DECUS ET TUTAMEN edge with many other pounds, the edge alone does not confirm it. Look closely at the plant detail and the alignment of the two sides instead.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 pound |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2014 |
| Circulation mintage | 5,780,000 |
| 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 2014 £1 coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 Thistle and Bluebell £1 Coin | 5,185,000 | Face value |
| 2014 Shield of the Royal Arms £1 Coin | 79,305,200 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
Is the Flax and Shamrock pound rare?
Not especially. With 5,780,000 struck for circulation it has the highest mintage of the four floral pounds of 2013 and 2014. It is scarcer than any shield pound but far more common than the capital cities coins.
Why is flax on the Northern Ireland pound?
Flax is the plant linen is made from. Linen was a major industry in Ulster for generations. It appeared on the 1986 round pound too. The 2014 coin pairs it with the shamrock, linked by tradition to St Patrick.
Mintage figures: One pound (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.