Photo: Ron Lach

Why is 1971 penny rare?

mirror.co.uk - Rare 1p coins - have you got a penny worth a fortune? - Mirror Online

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It's might be time to empty the penny jar as a rare 1p has recently sold for £50 online - here are the most valuable 1p coins It's pretty rare to actually spend your pennies these days - a Government study pointed out that 60% of 1p coins are used just once before they drop out of circulation. Figures from Gocompare.com show fewer than one Brit in three (32%) actually uses copper coins – the rest of us don't carry them or spend them. Most people simply put their copper coins in a jar – with the average jar now containing £15.40 in copper coins. And young Brits are far more likely to think poorly about copper coins – with one in 12 admitting they throw them in the bin. Things have got so bad for 1p and 2ps, that the Government is seriously thinking about scrapping them for good - with the Bank of England also fine with this idea. But you could be making a massive mistake by ignoring them - after one just sold on eBay for £50.

The 1971 New Penny 1p coin

Back in 1971 the Royal Mint introduced the modern 1p piece. It struck and incredible 1.5 billion of them in the first year alone. Since then they have undergone very few changes. The portrait of the queen has been updated four times, while the back has had 3 versions in total. Each version has been minted a least a billions times - which means its incredibly tricky to track down the valuable ones. Tricky - but not impossible. Because there are a fair few that collectors are still willing to pay a fair whack over 1p to get their hands on.

This is how to spot them.

An incredible 1,521,666,250 "New" 1p coins were struck in 1971 as Britain moved to a decimal currency. You'd think that would mean they're still pretty common - but you'd be wrong. Because of the way we treat our coppers, they get beaten up, mangled, thrown away and drop out of circulation fast. The original design - with "New Penny" on the back and the Arnold Machin portrait of the Queen on the front - was used unchanged for 10 years, but it's the original 1971 coins that are worth the money. People have listed them for hundreds of pounds on eBay, but the highest anyone's paid for one recently is the lower - but still impressive - £50.

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The 1992 copper One Penny coin

The first major change to the 1p coin came in 1982 - when the words on the back switched from "New Penny" to "One Penny". The second major change came in 1985, when a new portrait of the Queen by Raphael Maklouf was put on the front. Neither move excited collectors much, but in 1992 something else happened - though it's almost impossible to spot by eye. In the 20 years after decimalisation in 1971, the price of copper had been rising while the pound fell. As 1p coins were made of 97% copper (along with 2.5% zinc and 0.5% tin) that meant that by 1992 it was no longer economic to make pennies from that metal. "With metal prices rising on world markets, the composition of 1p coins was changed from bronze to copper-plated steel," the Royal Mint museum explains. But not quite all the 1p coins struck in 1992 were copper-plated steel. 78,421 were made of bronze before the switch happened. That's the fewest number of any penny type ever struck - and far lower than the highly sought-after Kew Gardens 50p. Along with the Bronze coins, 254 million steel 1ps were struck in 1992 - which would make spotting them a problem, except for one thing. "As a result of their steel core, copper-plated steel 1p coins are magnetic," the Royal Mint museum explains. So if you find a 1992 1p, and can't pick it up with a magnet, you're on to a winner.

Rare 1p with crab

Guernsey started issuing 1p Guernsey coins in 1971 with crabs on the back. While normal on the island, the crab 1p piece is rare on the mainland and that means they are selling for well on ebay. As well as a crab on the back, there's a Guernsey crest on the front next to the Queen's portrait, and the text around her reads "Elizabeth II Bailwick of Guernsey". The coins are still in circulation - and sell for about 99p online. It's not a fortune, but is an awful lot more than their face value.

Gibraltar 1p coin with Barbary partridges, monkeys or maces on the back

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Guernsey isn't alone in having local versions of coins - Girbralter does too. The overseas territory has produced 1ps with birds on the back (the Barbary Partridge to be exact), monkeys and with a mace. Sadly, none of them sell for much more than 99p, but that's still a healthy profit on the 1p face value.

The 1933 Lavrillier Pattern Penny

The most expensive old penny ever sold for a whopping £72,000 a couple of years back. The 1933 Lavrillier Pattern Penny broke a world record for any copper or bronze coin sold at auction when the hammer went down at AH Baldwin and Sons in London on May 4. Why so valuable? Well, 1933 pennies are apparently extremely rare anyway. The Royal Mint produced a surplus of coins in 1932, meaning no more currency versions were produced the following year. Records were not well kept, but it is thought no more than seven pennies were made bearing the 1933 date - and they were for 'ceremonial and record purposes'. Of those seven, three were placed under the foundation stones of buildings leaving just four available. Thieves stole the set of coins deposited beneath the foundation stone of the Church of St Cross, Middleton, near Leeds and as a result a result a second set - buried beneath the foundation stone of St Mary’s Church, Hawksworth Wood, Kirkstall, Leeds - was removed on the instructions of the bishop and sold.

As far as we know, the third penny is still in place.

Another penny is being stored in the Royal Mint Museum, while the British Museum and the University of London also have one. Three are in private collections. This particular 1933 coin garnered bids from all over the world as a result of its rarity. The coin is what's known as a "Pattern" version - rather than the other 7 currency versions - and was presented as a prototype, but never went in to production. The fight finally came down to just two telephone bidders, who battled it out for over five minutes before the hammer came down.

mirror.co.uk - Rare 1p coins - have you got a penny worth a fortune? - Mirror Online

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