1 Pound - Charles III Honey Bees (2023–2026)

One row for each year the 1 Pound - Charles III Honey Bees was struck. Prices are medians of verified sold listings matched to that year from the listing: circulated is worn condition up to Extremely Fine, uncirculated is About Uncirculated or better. A count in brackets means fewer than three sales behind the figure; a grey figure marked "type" is the median across every year, shown where that year has no sale of its own yet. Most types have been searched year by year only since October 2026, so later years are still filling in. Use the grade table below for a price by condition across all years.

About the 2023 1 Pound - Charles III Honey Bees

The 2023 1 Pound - Charles III Honey Bees is a circulating 1 pound coin issued from 2023 to 2026 in the 12-Sided £1 series, struck in bimetallic: nickel plated nickel brass center in nickel brass ring. It weighs 8.75g and measures 23.03mm across. Reverse design: Two Honeybees to right, denomination over royal cypher design at left.

A mintage of 10,030,000 is recorded for one date of this type; figures for each year are not held.

Common questions

History and design

The Bees £1 is the definitive £1 of King Charles III, one of eight new designs from the 1p to the £2 unveiled in October 2023 on a theme of British plants and animals. It was among the first to be struck when production began on 2 November 2023, and the Royal Mint named its press release that day after it.

The coins are dated 2023 but did not reach the public until the following summer. On 20 August 2024 the Mint announced that 2.975 million had been issued to Post Offices and banks, the first £1 coins in circulation with the King's portrait. A second release of 7.565 million followed alongside the last Elizabeth II £1 coins, and it included 170,000 dated 2025.

The Royal Mint's figures show 10,030,000 dated 2023, none dated 2024 and 62,475,000 dated 2025. The 2023 figure is the second lowest annual total for a 12-sided £1 in the Mint's data, behind the 7,735,000 of 2022.

The reverse shows two bees with the inscription 1 POUND and a large numeral, set against a repeating pattern of three interlocking C's that runs across all eight coins and refers to the cypher of Charles II. The Royal Mint says the design stands for the more than 250 species of bee in the UK, among them bumblebees, mason bees and mining bees, which play a pivotal role in pollinating plants and fruiting trees.

The Mint's specification credits the reverse to the Royal Mint, whose team worked with the Royal Mint Advisory Committee and external artists, with support from the RSPB and the Royal Horticultural Society. The obverse carries the King's coinage portrait by Martin Jennings. Its inscription, CHARLES III DEI GRA REX F D and the date, is shorter than on the smaller coins, which have FID DEF. The coin is 12-sided and bimetallic, with alternating milled and plain edges.

Varieties and errors

There are two versions of the 2023 coin. Those sold in the Royal Mint's 2023 definitive sets carry a small Tudor Crown privy mark on the obverse, which the Mint describes as exclusive to that set. Coin Hunter records that the coins struck for circulation have no privy mark.

No mint errors are documented for this coin.

Collecting notes

Both circulating dates, 2023 and 2025, turn up in change. A coin dated 2024 can only have come from a collector set, as can a 2023 coin with the crown privy mark.

The design was the public's favourite of the eight in a Royal Mint poll of close to 3,000 people, taking nearly 30% of the vote, with the Red Squirrel 2p second.

The proclamation also provides for gold, silver, silver piedfort and platinum versions, which do not count towards the circulating figures. The design it replaced is the Nations of the Crown £1.