On 29 Jan, 03:34, "Michael G. Koerner" wrote:
Arizona Coin Collector wrote:
[major snippage]

Short of the UK potentially soon going with the Euro, me thinks that the time
has come for the Royal Mint to change the composition of the £1. *If it is
really THAT bad (1:40 is now fake), I'd seriously consider not accepting £1
coins at all if I were a British shop keeper. *Ditto in change as an average
consumer.

The shopkeepers have no idea that the problem exists. I put £10 into a
change machine in an arcade and got out 10 £1 coins. I then put one of
the self-same coins in the machine to change into 50p's. It rejected
it. Obviouly the machine had been loaded inadvertently with a fake
coin. I went to the assistant and told her I got a fake coin from her
machine. She looked a bit suspicious and clearly didn't know £1s were
faked. She replaced my coin anyway.

Most fakes are not accepted by vending machines. I used to think it
was the machine's fault, but then I realised they were fakes, you
could see the poor quality quite easily.