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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/money/shortcuts/2016/nov/01/new-pound-coin-uk-march-how-much-cost
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| How much will the new £1 coin cost the UK? How much will the new £1 coin cost the UK? | |
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| Britain does need a new pound coin. The chunky faux-gold nugget that we have feels good in the hand, but since its launch in 1983 it has become easy to forge, and now about one in 40 of them is phoney. You’ve almost certainly spent some yourself. Though the bimetallic dodecagon we’re going to get lacks charm, it has micro-lettering, a latent image and a secret security feature, which ought to take care of forgery for good, if the pound’s plummeting value doesn’t get there first. It also looks somewhat like an old threepenny bit and somewhat like a euro, which ought to please both leavers and remainers. | Britain does need a new pound coin. The chunky faux-gold nugget that we have feels good in the hand, but since its launch in 1983 it has become easy to forge, and now about one in 40 of them is phoney. You’ve almost certainly spent some yourself. Though the bimetallic dodecagon we’re going to get lacks charm, it has micro-lettering, a latent image and a secret security feature, which ought to take care of forgery for good, if the pound’s plummeting value doesn’t get there first. It also looks somewhat like an old threepenny bit and somewhat like a euro, which ought to please both leavers and remainers. |
| For most of us, the changeover next March will be a novelty soon absorbed, but for the vending industry it is big. In case you weren’t aware, there are two broad types of coin-operated machine. Virtually all modern ones use electronic sensors to “validate” a coin with as many as a hundred different checks, including speed past the sensor, diameter and metal content. Depending on the machine, some coins may then be passed to a change hopper, which could struggle with the new pound. Otherwise the job is essentially just a software update, installed in person by an engineer. | For most of us, the changeover next March will be a novelty soon absorbed, but for the vending industry it is big. In case you weren’t aware, there are two broad types of coin-operated machine. Virtually all modern ones use electronic sensors to “validate” a coin with as many as a hundred different checks, including speed past the sensor, diameter and metal content. Depending on the machine, some coins may then be passed to a change hopper, which could struggle with the new pound. Otherwise the job is essentially just a software update, installed in person by an engineer. |
| “It’s not going to be that much of a problem,” says Paul Sucksmith, technical manager at TVS, a company which repairs vending machines. He estimates that the two visits – one to switch on the new pound, then another to switch the old one off – would cost about £100 altogether. The British Parking Association quotes £90-£130 a machine for the simplest software upgrade to most parking meters, £250-£350 if the validator needs replacing and “considerably more” if the meter must provide change. In total, the BPA has said that it could cost up to £50m to adapt just Britain’s parking meters. More optimistically, the Royal Mint put the cost of changing “all the machines in the country” at £15-£20m. | “It’s not going to be that much of a problem,” says Paul Sucksmith, technical manager at TVS, a company which repairs vending machines. He estimates that the two visits – one to switch on the new pound, then another to switch the old one off – would cost about £100 altogether. The British Parking Association quotes £90-£130 a machine for the simplest software upgrade to most parking meters, £250-£350 if the validator needs replacing and “considerably more” if the meter must provide change. In total, the BPA has said that it could cost up to £50m to adapt just Britain’s parking meters. More optimistically, the Royal Mint put the cost of changing “all the machines in the country” at £15-£20m. |
| Owners of older, simpler mechanisms – lockers, washing machines, shopping trolleys – have four unappealing choices. They can pay to have all the locks replaced. Will Knight, general manager of Locker Shop, put a “purely ballpark” estimate of £40-£50 a locker on this, not including labour. A gym with just 50 lockers could therefore end up spending £3,000. Faced with a bill like that, some businesses may just refurbish the entire changing room with new lockers, if a refurbishment was due. | Owners of older, simpler mechanisms – lockers, washing machines, shopping trolleys – have four unappealing choices. They can pay to have all the locks replaced. Will Knight, general manager of Locker Shop, put a “purely ballpark” estimate of £40-£50 a locker on this, not including labour. A gym with just 50 lockers could therefore end up spending £3,000. Faced with a bill like that, some businesses may just refurbish the entire changing room with new lockers, if a refurbishment was due. |
| Options three and four, which I’m guessing will be most popular, are to switch to pound-shaped plastic tokens, which is a constant hassle, or, in gyms with more lockers than members, to give everyone their own key. Although, as Knight points out: “It only works if you’ve got an administration system that is capable of issuing the keys when they need to be issued, and retrieving the keys when they need to be retrieved.” | Options three and four, which I’m guessing will be most popular, are to switch to pound-shaped plastic tokens, which is a constant hassle, or, in gyms with more lockers than members, to give everyone their own key. Although, as Knight points out: “It only works if you’ve got an administration system that is capable of issuing the keys when they need to be issued, and retrieving the keys when they need to be retrieved.” |
| One comforting thought, at least, is that this may never happen again, since all coins bar the 20p and the coppers have been recently updated, and card payments look likely to take over soon. “Probably in about 15 years’ time there will be no machines with coin mechs on them,” Sucksmith says. “That’s my prediction.” | One comforting thought, at least, is that this may never happen again, since all coins bar the 20p and the coppers have been recently updated, and card payments look likely to take over soon. “Probably in about 15 years’ time there will be no machines with coin mechs on them,” Sucksmith says. “That’s my prediction.” |