1997 1p Coin

Quick answers

Is the 1997 1p rare?

No. 396.9 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.

How many 1997 1p coins were made?

396,874,000 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1997 1p made of?

Copper-plated steel. It weighs 3.56 g and measures 20.32 mm.

Is the 1997 1p still legal tender?

Yes. The 1p is legal tender, though 1p and 2p coins together only have to be accepted for payments up to 20p.

How to recognize it

The other side carries Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1985 to 1997.

The 1997 1p is round, 20.32 mm across and copper-plated steel.

1997 1p by the numbers

Measured by how many were made, the 1997 1p ranks 26th lowest of 51 1p dates and varieties from 1971 to 2023. The next scarcer is the 1986 1p (370 million); the next more common is the 1980 1p (416.3 million).

For scale, the most common is the 1971 1p with 1.52 billion, about 3.8 times as many. The scarcest is the 2023 1p with 600,000, 661 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1997 output was 1.8 times fewer than 1996 and 1.9 times fewer than 1998.

Over the 1990s the Mint produced 5.49 billion pennies across 10 dates and varieties; the 1997 1p accounts for 7.2% of that.

What to check on your 1997 1p

• Confirm the date. Most dates are common, so the date and any variety decide whether a coin is worth setting aside.
• Try a magnet: 1997 1p coins are copper-plated steel and stick to it. A 1997 coin that does not stick is worth a closer look.
• Look at the surfaces under a light. Coins from sets have unbroken luster and color; change-worn coins are dull and scuffed.
• Never clean it. Rubbing or dipping strips the original color and leaves fine scratches.

Copper-plated steel pennies with the portcullis (1992 to 2007)

By the early 1990s solid bronze had become a costly material for a coin worth so little. The Royal Mint's answer in 1992 was copper-plated steel: a steel disc with a thin copper skin, which looks much the same in your hand but is far cheaper to make. Size and weight stayed at 20.32 mm and 3.56 g so that tills, scales and machines carried on working as before. The new pennies are magnetic, which is how most people first discover the change.

Raphael Maklouf's portrait continued until 1997. In 1998 Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait took over, showing an older Queen in a tiara with his initials IRB under the bust. It stayed for the rest of this period. Ironside's crowned portcullis and the ONE PENNY wording carried on unchanged. Production hit its peak in these years. Several dates passed 700 million and the 2000 penny reached 1,060,420,000, the only date apart from 1971 to go over a billion.

Steel coins age differently from bronze. The plating rubs through on the high points, scratches show bright pink and pennies kept somewhere damp develop rust spots. None of that makes a coin an error, though people often ask. Every date in this period was struck in the hundreds of millions, so circulated pennies are face value. Collectors who chase these years want bright uncirculated coins, usually from Royal Mint sets, or tidy examples to fill the holes in an album.

Mintage chart

Specifications