21 tips to complete your Great One Pound Coin Race
The Race is on…
You’ve only got until 15 October to find all 24 circulating £1 coin designs. And after the new 12-sided £1 Coin is released on 28 March, it will get harder as banks start to replace the £1 coins they receive with the new 12-sided £1 coin.
So that’s why we’ve put our heads together to give you 21 Top Tips to complete your Great One Pound Coin Race in time.
- Check your change drawer / change pot
- Ask friends and family
- Go to the bank and change notes to £1 coins
- Swap with the Change Checker web app – changechecker.org
- Befriend the local corner shop / launderette owner and ask them for their £1 coins
- Arcade / bingo change machines
- Pay with a note and round up with loose change to maximise your £1 coin change
- Look for Facebook swap groups
- Raid your children’s piggy banks (and replace them with notes!)
- Look for abandoned supermarket trolleys
- Check down the back of the sofa
- Check old handbags
- Set up a lottery syndicate and collect the payments in round £1 coins
- Have a bake sale – everything a round £1 coin
- Offer to count up any collections and swap out the £1 coins for notes
- Car boot sale – everything is “One Round Pound”
- Pay car park charges in notes and receive the change in coins
- Check any tips your friends might be leaving at restaurants
- Always carry some £1 coins with you so you can swap any time you see a good one
- Check gym lockers
- Try to build a collection as a group – e.g. a school class – 30 Change Checkers are better than 1!
Win a Gold-plated Participant’s Medal
Do you have any more tips?
We’ll be giving away some special 24-Carat Gold Plated Great One Pound Coin Participant’s Medals to the best ideas. Simply comment below with your top tip.
How to enter the Great One Pound Coin Race
If you haven’t started your Great One Pound Coin Race yet, it’s not too late. Simply click here to enter today and you too could own a complete collection of £1 coins direct from your change before they’re gone for ever.
Ask your family for your birthday money to be in £1 coins.
Check your pump filter of your washing machine. The older the machine the more chance the older the coin.
Check under the fluff filter in your tumble dryer as they come out of your pockets and slip past the filter. I find loads while stripping the machines.
When getting change at a shop just ask if they have any special £1 coins in the till. I do it all the time for 50p’s
Start a local £1 swap table at your school / youth center / village hall / community center / charity venue . People can swap £1 for £1 can also work for 50p’s too
Have a weekend car wash at your home for round pounds.
List your wanted coins on facebook selling sites and offer a reward of a £2 coin for ever £1 coin found. Everyone in the world is willing to double there money.
Gather up all your old junk / clothes and sell on facebook selling sites for 1 round pound per item.
Ask buskers if you can swap their pound coins for notes or other change.
Hi Helen, great suggestion! Please private message us on Facebook, Twitter or [email protected] for you address and I’ll get a Gold-Plated Participant’s Medal sent out for you!
Unfortunately no… Only have Belfast available unfortunately… I need the other 3…. Sorry…
Use as much loose change as possible to over pay at vending machines, they should round up your change. This is good for 50p’s also
Buy a train ticket from self service, pay by notes and the change is mainly £1 coins, got 2 cities Cardiff, and London and the royal shield today using this method.
Does any one have a spare Edinburgh city to swap, and what would you want for it.
Asking for your change in pound coins
Or
Using the self serve tills and paying for a small item so can keep getting change back
Doing post office and bank runs. Ordering large amounts of coins or even a small amount from the post office .
Anytime can just go in and ask for say £40-100 in pound coins before the end of march be best though
Fastest way for me eBay. Done in a few weeks. In the buy it now section rather then the auction section. It’s much cheaper at the moment.
eBay and Facebook groups
Buying and swapping.
I personally get down to my local amusements and change hundreds of pounds ?
Hi. ..i use girlie nights to help me find coins,,,i go to bingo twice a week,i get pouns coins in my change and they will swop a 20pound paper notes and give me a bag of coins to that amount and you can request more than one bag. i have found a lot of my coins that way.also pub lunches are a good way too
I am 3 cities from completing it… Need Cardiff, London and Edinburgh… Wish I had that luck! X)
Perhaps if you live in area where theres an arcade change your note in the machine for one pound coins. You never know
Too tips I use:
Got very friendly with the counter staff in my local Santander bank and they look out for coins for me.
Our local swimming pool and gym has £1 lockers. I often check them out in case people have forgotten to take there £1 out … have got 3 coins I needed from doing this as well as making a few £ every now and again. Can only do this trick if there is no one else in the changing room.
My favourite … the vending machine (check it issues change first). Put a £1 in then cancel the sale … have had plenty special 50p from this trick.
I’m short of the cities… need x2 London and X1 Edinburgh. Got plenty Belfast 🙁
Looks like iv finished my set and almost got two set loads left over ,ive been collecting pound coins for ages got about 1000
Metal detecting on beaches and parks
But always get permission for the park.
I check my till at work and then all my colleagues till and always carry a note on me to exchange the coins
Get Mummy to go down the bank and change £100 of my pocket money into pound coins!!
I have a tip for collecting change , it is getting cashback at a supermarket all in £1 coins.
Bake some cakes with your kids and call it
The round pound cake bake sale.
When I go to work and pay for the car park, I use a £20 note each time, and get 15 £1 in change.
Maybe you could help me complete my collection? Am 5 designs away of completing my pound coin collection! Apart from new pound coin and last round pound coin as it needs to be bought online.
A Good tip I found is to go to the high street or seaside town where there’s
Plenty of maned kiosks and keep changing notes up, just don’t get caught up useing in the machines!!
Good luck All
Any one need guernsey pound coin dated 2001 2003. Before taken out 15 October 2017
Ive asked a cuple of taxi drivers to save me all of there pond couns for me to check frow first before they take them 2 the bank…….???
I’ve only got to get the new 12 sided pound to complete my set. It helps that I work in retail so check the tills when I start then check the change customers give me and swap it over.
i there I am a person how collects the money at car boot sales and at the end of the day have to count it up so I get the chance to sort them out for the ones I need
Ask big issue sellers to swap all there £1 coins for notes there be glad to get rid of the change. ( buy big issue off them also ?)
All capital cities except belfast, the pound coin with the small shield ( can’t remember the names, lol ) and a few flowers. Am down to six designs to collect at the moment.
You could do The Great Coin Games where all of the events include coins in circulation In England right now. To get in everyone has to pay with a one pound coin and then different events will happen, including the 10p egg and spoon race, where lots on 10p are stacked on a spoon and then it’s just like an egg and spoons race. Also you could play a child friendly darts where children throw coins onto a dart looking board on the floor. The person with the highest score at the end wins. The winner could win a bag of chocolate coins. These games would be good for young children but if you also had enough people the help you, you could put on a small cafe where people can buy drinks all for one round pound. This would be good to raise lots of more money for charity but also sneak a few pound coins out that you still need for your colllection!
Only need Edinburgh city to complete, have a spare London city
I need the other three I seen to only find Belfast coins…
Think I might have a spare Edinburgh I will check and swap for the London if you still have it
Hi Jane, if you have another spare Edinburgh it’s the only one I need too. I might have a spare London, I can check if you would like it. Are there any others you need?
Edinburgh selling for rediculous prices on ebay
If you’re a singer , dancer ,poet , musician or a magician then why not busk to find those great round one pound coins . You can even travel to different destinations and a train journey is a good way to travel along with this you can get change from the ticket machines yet again another chance from the change out of machines.
Hand out charity buckets to shops and swap the coins you need from them then give to charity, helping you collection whilst helping others!
How to get loads of £1 coins. If your holding an event soon (charity, school, funday etc.) do a competition where people have to put a £1 coin in a bucket, each £1 coin has a sticker stuck on it with a number, this is recordered on a sheet with the name and telephone number of the person. At the end of the event one £1 coin is selected at random to win a prize. I have done this myself before and raised £200-£300 in £1 coins.
If you have a birthday coming up, ask for a bag of one pound coins as a gift rather than a voucher etc.
I have 1Scotland :Thistle and Bluebell 2014. 4 Dragon Passant 2000. 2 England Oak Tree 1992.2 Wales Leek 1 is1995 and other is 1990 got more but don’t think they look as if they are high on the agenda if anyone is interested .
Hi Isobel. My name is Phil and I am interested in your Scotish thistle and blue bell as I have the other three., or I can call you if you issue me with your contact number or yoy can call me on mine 07919927444. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Always pay for basic groceries (bread, milk) with bank notes instead of debit/credit card. Ask at the till to give you change in £1 coins, the bigger the bank note the more coins you get!
Swap a £20 note for a bag of pounds at your bank or post office
Get family and friends to keep a look out for the pounds you need
Swap using change checker
Take a few notes to the bank and ask them to change it for £1 coins.
Befriend a bank cashier (Better still, get a job in a bank!!)
Ask your local brownie or youth group to swap their sub money for notes. Some collect subs each week and the leaders would love the coins swapped for notes.
Got1988 young head 2001 old head same castle that makes 25 not 24is ther more
Got all 24 a lot of swap
Am 6 designs away from completing my collection… Would be amazing if you could help… XD
You don’t happen to have the Edinburgh crest do you? I think it’s the only one I need…
would you have a spare Edinburgh city, what would you need for it ?
Have found one that’s not on list
It’s a castle with one pound written at the top with no country badges at the.
Bottom
Its a gibraltor pound coin its not legal tender in uk but we still get the odd few through they can be exchanged in banks there are a few other designs in this currency too.
I’ve got the one with the skull yesterday! Still added it to my collection! XD