British Overseas Territories to design own pound coins

British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies will be allowed to design and mint their own versions of pound coins for the first time, HM Treasury of the United Kingdom announced on Sunday.

Three Crown Dependencies and 14 Overseas Territories, including British Antarctic Territory, Bermuda, and British Indian Ocean Territory, will have the option of creating their own versions of the distinctive 12-sided pound coin.

Locally designed coins will feature images celebrating their heritage, history, and culture pictured on the reverse side, HM Treasury of the UK said.

British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies will be required to inform the UK's Royal Mint, which will ensure the same security standards are met as are met with other coins in circulation before approving the designs and supplying territories with the necessary blank or struck coins.

Many territories and dependencies currently use coins based on older versions of UK currency, which are pegged against pound sterling.

The new 12-sided, bi-metallic pound coin is made with cutting-edge technology that makes them more secure in response to the risk from counterfeiters. The coin was introduced in March 2017 as "the most secure of its kind in the world", according to the Treasury.

Its main features, in addition to the12sides, are intermittent milled edges, and the denomination and year date incorporated in micro-text on the coin, the Treasury said.

The old round pound, which had been in circulation since 1983, had become vulnerable to sophisticated counterfeiters, the Guardian newspaper reported.

With one fake in every 30 in circulation, the coin was one of the world'smost counterfeited, according to the Royal Mint. British households started getting rid of them in October 2017.

"This decision taken by ministers to roll out the coin underpins the UK's commitment to its territories and dependencies, and will ensure they can benefit from the increased security that the 12-sided coin offers," HM Treasury of UK said on its website.

Tariq Ahmad, the minister of state for the overseas territories, said: "Each (territory) will be able to create a design that reflects their own distinctive heritage as part of the British family. As well as helping to boost their identity, these new coins will also bring increased security to each of these economies."