One-pound notes continue to be issued in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and by the Royal Bank of Scotland, but the pound coin is much more widely used.

After that date, the older coin could only be redeemed at banks,[3] although some retailers announced they would continue to accept it for a limited time,[4] and it remained in use in the Isle of Man.

[16] The winner, announced in April 2008, was Matthew Dent, whose designs were gradually introduced into the circulating British coinage from mid-2008.

The design of the reverse of the original coin was changed each year from 1983 to 2008 to show, in turn, an emblem representing the UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England, together with an appropriate edge inscription.

[19] The reverse of the new 12-sided, bimetallic pound coin, introduced on 28 March 2017,[2] was chosen by a public design competition.

[21] It was won in March 2015 by 15-year-old David Pearce from Walsall, and unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne during his Budget announcement.

The final round coins minted for 2016 and the 2015 Shield of the Royal Arms fifth portrait did not enter circulation, as they were only available through commemorative sets.

[31] These were the shield from the Royal Coat of Arms by Matthew Dent, and a design by Gregory Cameron, Bishop of St Asaph, of four heraldic beasts.

[30][32] During later years of the round pound's use, Royal Mint surveys estimated the proportion of counterfeit £1 coins in circulation.

[41] It is illegal to pass on counterfeit currency knowingly; the official advice is to hand it in, with details of where received, to the police, who will retain it and investigate.

[43] Counterfeit coins are made by different processes including casting, stamping, electrotyping, and copying with a pantograph or spark erosion.

The new design is intended to make counterfeiting more difficult, and also has an undisclosed hidden security feature called "iSIS" (Integrated Secure Identification Systems),[20][49] thought to be a code embedded in the top layer of metal on the obverse of the coin, visible only under a specific wavelength of ultraviolet light.

In "Real Britannia", an April 1993 article in The New Yorker, Julian Barnes describes the meetings to choose the 1994–1997 reverse designs.