The new £1 coin fact-file

                                                             (C)RoyalMint

Here are some facts about the new £1 coin and coins generally produced by the Royal Mint:

• The Royal Mint has produced over 2.2 billion round pound coins since 1983 - equating to the weight of nearly 6,000 elephants
• Twenty five different designs have appeared on the pound coin, from dragons to trees
• The Royal Mint will make over 1.5 billion of the new £1 coins 
• If you put these coins side by side, there would be enough to go from the UK to New Zealand and back
• The new £1 coin is based on the design of the old 12-sided threepenny bit, which went out of circulation in 1971
• It is being made at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales, at a rate of up to 2,000 each minute
• Some of the round £1 coins returned by the public will be melted down and reused to make the new £1 coin
• The oldest British coins in the Royal Mint's collection date back over 2,000 years.