1 Pound - Elizabeth II 3rd portrait Scottish Thistle (1989)

About the 1989 1 Pound - Elizabeth II – Scottish Thistle

The 1989 1 Pound - Elizabeth II – Scottish Thistle 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: Scottish thistle encircled by the Royal Diadem above denomination.

70,580,501 were struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 2017), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

In 1989 the round pound began its second pass through the four nations. The first series of national designs, which the Royal Mint describes as floral emblems, had run from Scotland in 1984 to England in 1987, with a United Kingdom shield in 1988. The 1989 coin brought back the Scottish Thistle unchanged on the reverse.

The Royal Mint's figures give 70,580,501 struck for circulation, a little under half the 146,256,501 of the 1984 issue. It is the twelfth highest of the 41 round £1 date and design entries in the Mint's list, and almost ten times the figure for the 1988 coin before it (7,118,825). Across both dates, 216,837,002 Thistle pounds were struck.

Round pounds were replaced by the 12-sided £1 from 28 March 2017 and lost their legal tender status at midnight on 15 October 2017.

The reverse is Leslie Durbin's thistle and royal diadem, representing Scotland, first used five years earlier. The edge inscription is also carried over: NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT, which Check Your Change translates as "no one provokes me with impunity".

What changed is the obverse. The 1984 coin had Arnold Machin's portrait of Elizabeth II. By 1989 the coinage carried Raphael Maklouf's portrait, which the Royal Mint lists for round pounds from 1985 to 1997. That makes the Thistle the only one of Durbin's four floral designs to exist with two different portraits, and it is why the two dates are catalogued as separate coins.

Varieties and errors

Check Your Change records that two slightly different font types are known for the edge lettering on 1989 pounds. It gives no further description and does not say that either is scarcer, so this is a point of interest for completists and not an established rarity.

Edge lettering that reads upside down when the obverse faces up is not a variety. The Royal Mint says the inscription is rolled onto the blank before striking and may point towards either face.

Collecting notes

Check the date first, since the reverse alone will not separate this coin from the 1984 Thistle £1. On a coin with a worn date the portrait settles it.

The 1989 pound is common, so there is no reason to accept a poor example. Look for a sharp thistle and diadem and a complete, legible edge, and compare the edge lettering with other 1989 coins if the font variety interests you. The design was also struck as a silver proof and a silver piedfort for 1989. Scotland's next round pound was the 1994 Lion Rampant £1. The coin can no longer be spent, though most high street banks may still accept round pounds for deposit.