Shoppers have just one week left to spend their old £1 coins before they go out of circulation – but Lidl self-service check outs have already stopped accepting them causing ‘chaos’ for shoppers.
The round £1, which has been replaced by the new 12-sided coin, will cease to be legal tender on Sunday and will no longer be accepted in shops and businesses.
People have been urged to rummage through their pockets to spend, bank or donate the estimated 500 million old coins still in circulation before the deadline.
The round £1, which has been replaced by the new 12-sided coin, will cease to be legal tender on Sunday
But shoppers have found that they cannot spend them in the German supermarket giant’s self-service tills despite the coins still being legal tender.
A sign on Lidl’s self-service checkout counters at its Tooting branch in south London informed customers: ‘Our self-service checkouts will no longer accept old £1 coins.
‘They will still be accepted on manned checkouts until October 15, 2017. Apologies for any inconvenience.’
The move caused queues as shoppers lined up to use the self-service check outs only to find that they could not spend the old coins before having to queue for a second time for the manned tills.
‘It was chaotic. There was no one serving at the one manned till so everyone was queuing for eight or ten self-service tills, some people did not notice the signs and even scanned all their items before realising they couldn’t use their £1s.
‘Then they got someone on the manned till and people had to queue all over again. They were a few shoppers who got very irate and frustrated.
‘Everyone was saying the coins were still legal tender so the machines should take them,’ said one shopper at the store.
The new, 12-sided pound coin has been in use since March and will replace the old-style coin
Last night Lidl said it was looking into the issue and claimed it was due to a ‘technical glitch’.
‘We have experienced a technical glitch on some of our self-service check outs and apologise to any customers that have been inconvenienced by this,’ a spokeswoman said.
Major banks have said that while they encourage customers to allow enough time to hand in their old coins, they will continue to accept deposits of round pounds from their customers after Sunday.
People may also find they can still hand in the old £1 coins at the Post Office after the deadline.
Chief executive and deputy master of the Royal Mint Adam Lawrence said: ‘The round pound has been in circulation for over 30 years but, as the deadline approaches, we are keen to encourage everyone to track down their final coins and use them.
Lidl self-service check outs have already stopped accepting them, causing ‘chaos’ for shoppers
‘After October 15, the 12-sided £1 coin will be the only £1 coin being spent in the UK.
‘As the deadline is triggered, we are proud that the security features on the 12-sided £1 coin will help to safeguard our currency for years to come.’
The new 12-sided pound coin entered circulation in March and boasts new high-tech security features to thwart counterfeiters.
The production of the new coins follows concerns about round pounds being vulnerable to counterfeiters.
Around one in every 30 £1 coins in people’s change in recent years has been fake.
One pound coins were first launched on April 21, 1983, to replace £1 notes.
The Royal Mint has produced more than two billion round pound coins since that time.
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Jones said people have returned more than 1.2 billion of the old coins in the past six months.