[Closed] The middle of £2 coins

All this talk of fake £1 coins got me thinking.

Make fake £1 coins out of genuine £2 coins. You're a genius Father Dougal.

Sounds good. Split the profits 50/50?

coming soon: after you've driven out the central disc in a vice, can it be gotten back in again ?

I saw some Aussies doing this in a pub once.

They soon stopped, once I told them that defacing or damaging the Queen's currency is illegal, and that they would go to prison for a very, very long time. And got quite worried, when I pointed out the CCTV cam just behind them...

The old 10 Franc coin was like the £2 one - dead easy to pop the middle out, and then shove it back in again. Not tried these newfangled £2 ones though.

It is very tempting though...

[b]GrahamS[/b] - Member
All this talk of fake £1 coins got me thinking.
Make fake £1 coins out of genuine £2 coins. You're a genius Father Dougal

Please refain from such funny quotes I'm in work. Restrain yourself. 😆

Really we should do away with the one pound coin and simply accept either section of a two pound coin as "a pound".

Just think of the wear-and-tear on pockets that could be saved.

I knew an Irishman who made 10p pieces by filing the edges off 50p pieces.

Was that racist?

I meant 'was that a racist thing to say.'

Could you make 20p pieces by filing the edges of 10p coins!

Really we should do away with the one pound coin and simply accept either section of a two pound coin as "a pound".

I like the idea of that - take it further, make little jigsaws where each peice is worth £1. Or just use electronic transfer - don't need anything other than some sort of embedded chip and then a reader can deduct money from your bank a/c when needed. Never be short of cash again - unless your poor I suppose....

Well I believe in Japan you can pay for most things using your mobile phone.

But I do like the idea of jigsaw money. Maybe make it worth an extra pound if you can put together all the parts. You know, add a fun element to finance.

Or just use electronic transfer - don't need anything other than some sort of embedded chip and then a reader can deduct money from your bank a/c when needed

Don't we have this already? Isn't it just a switch card?

I saw some Aussies doing this in a pub once.

They soon stopped, once I told them that defacing or damaging the Queen's currency is illegal, and that they would go to prison for a very, very long time.

I can imaging going to prison for stealing the Queen's currency, but surely if it was in their pockets it was their currency, not the Queen's???

I once shot 10 0.22 rim-fire rounds at at a £2 coin to get the middle out.

it didn't work but it turned into a nice dome shape 🙂

i think the law on defaceing coins goes back a long way, back to when a coin was actualy worth its weight in gold/silver/copper/etc. So dissreputable people would shave off the edges untill there was enough to melt down and sell on.

Now that coins are worth sweet fek all in metaurgical terms its largely pointless.

I remember a TV programme years ago having to get permission from the Royal Mint to cut a penny in half with scissors....

Slightly off topic, but you used to be able to fold an old one pound note in a certain way to make the Queen look like John McEnroe.

I thought that the copper in 2ps meant they were now worth more as scrap?

yeah but graham, the 2 p's arent 100% copper ahymore, so its not really like that. Used to be though.

Pieces of Eight were coins that could and were quite legitimately cut up into halfs, quarters or eighths due to the high value of the complete coin.

lifted from the web...

Defacing Coins of the Realm
We receive e-mails from people asking whether it is illegal to deface coins. We are never quite sure why they need to know, or what they are intending to do. We are quite sure that it is still be illegal to deface coins, particularly current ones.
If you need to check on the legality, you could try contacting H.M. Treasury, or asking your local reference library, some libraries have a law library collection, otherwise you could ask a solicitor which will obviously cost money. While we are not in a authoritative position to give you a definitive answer we believe that you should be alright. The authorities quite sensibly are unlikely to prosecute anyone who damages one or two coins, but would probably get upset if someone defaced or printed an advertising slogan on several million of them. Similarly if your advert encouraged millions of others to do the same, you might have a problem.
The lack of response from the Royal Mint probably can probably be taken to indicate their lack of concern, and if you did find yourself facing legal action later, it would certainly be a mitigating factor, if not a defence, to be able to show that you had taken the precaution of asking the mint. Taking this logic a little further, you can probably understand the difficulty for the mint in answering your question. Assuming it is illegal to deface a coin, and also assuming that the Royal Mint are not concerned about you defacing a single coin, they can hardly write to tell you they have no objection, as they would not be allowed to give you permission to break the law.

http://www.24carat.co.uk/defacingcoinsframe.html

Rudeboy and on and on's posts seem to contradict each other.

you can get the middle out quite easy by wacking it with a punch - they have a little ridge on them, so when you try and get it back in it usually bends the darker colour bit and looks a bit of a mess, they still take them at tesco's thou.

oh the joys of quiet days working in the bike shop.

they still take defaced 2 pound coins at tescos?

looks like i'll have to try again with a big hammer instead of a rifle 🙂

[img] http://kottke.org/plus/photos/200107uk/mcenroe.jp g" target="_blank">http://kottke.org/plus/photos/200107uk/mcenroe.jp g"/> [/img]

wow - it's John McEnroe's deformed, balding, mad haired, wonky eared older brother!!!

just seen that pic in Tomzo's post. You cannot be serious!

chalk dust!

Well you get those little machines that flatten out 1p pieces, at Museums and stuff, and they have a sign on them saying its legal to do so.

This was a staple when it came to amusing ourselves in the workshop at uni.
It's legal so long as you use the hammer on the opposite side to the queen's head. ha

1ps and 2ps are now made from steel (the previous material was too pricey), coated in copper coloured stuff(metalurgical term). Try them on your nearest magnet.