1 Pound - Elizabeth II 3rd portrait Crowned Royal Shield (1988)

About the 1988 1 Pound - Elizabeth II – Crowned Royal Shield

The 1988 1 Pound - Elizabeth II – Crowned Royal Shield is a circulating 1 pound coin in the Round Pound series, struck in nickel brass. It weighs 9.5g and measures 22.5mm across. Reverse design: Crowned Royal Shield of Arms above denomination.

7,118,825 were struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 2017), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

By 1988 the round pound had been through its first cycle: the Royal Arms in 1983, then a floral emblem for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England in the four years after. In its sixth year the coin returned to the United Kingdom as a whole, but with a new design in place of the 1983 one.

That design lasted a single year. Every £1 dated 1988 carries it, and Change Checker notes that 1988 was the only year it was used. In 1989 the sequence went back to the Scottish Thistle, and when the United Kingdom's turn came again in 1993 the original Royal Arms returned.

The Royal Mint's figures give 7,118,825 struck for circulation. That is the lowest of any round £1 dated before 2008, below even the 10,409,501 of the 1986 Flax. Nine later round pounds have lower figures, all dated 2008 to 2014. Round pounds lost their legal tender status at midnight on 15 October 2017.

The reverse is by Derek Gorringe. The Royal Mint describes it as the Shield of the Royal Arms, representing the United Kingdom, and collectors call it the Crowned Shield. The Mint describes Eric Sewell's 1983 design as the Royal Arms, so the two United Kingdom coins of the 1980s are distinct designs by different artists.

Change Checker traces the Royal Arms back to Richard I, whose arms showed three gold lions, and describes the 1988 reverse as the most modern version of arms that have been adapted over the centuries.

The milled edge reads DECUS ET TUTAMEN, the inscription of the 1983 coin, which Check Your Change translates as "an ornament and safeguard". The obverse has Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Elizabeth II.

Varieties and errors

No recognised varieties or mint errors are documented for this coin. Edge lettering that reads upside down relative to the Queen's head is not an error: the Royal Mint says the inscription can point towards either face and there is no right or wrong way.

Collecting notes

On mintage this is the hardest date to find among the round pounds of 1983 to 1997. There is only one circulating date and one portrait, so identification is easy: a crowned shield on the reverse and 1988 on the obverse. It should not be confused with Matthew Dent's Royal Shield £1 struck from 2008, which has a different shield and Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait.

The design was also struck as a silver proof and a silver piedfort. Its neighbours in the series are the Oak £1 and the 1989 Thistle £1. Round pounds can no longer be spent, though the Royal Mint says most high street banks may still accept them for deposit.