As of Wednesday 15 October the circular pound coins, which have been in circulation since 1983, will no longer be legal tender.
There will be no Jersey version of the dodecagonal coin, which is said to be the ‘most secure coin in the world’. Instead the Treasury is relying on the currency being brought over in travellers’ pockets.
The shape of the new coin is set to cost businesses in the Island and the UK thousands of pounds, as they will have to alter technology to accept it.
Everything from pool tables and jukeboxes in pubs, to vending and games machines, parking metres and changing-room lockers will have to be changed.
Jonathan Ruff, owner of the Tamba chain which includes Tamba Arcade at the Waterfront, said he was going to have to spend up to £6,000 on new coin mechanisms for his machines. ‘For an arcade that is only eight months old, it is very frustrating to do that,’ he said.
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