Can you use 5 pound coins

There are, however, certain banks that will allow them to be deposited and therefore it is always worth trying your local bank first. Should this fail, we recommend visiting your local post office, where the coins can be used in exchange for goods and services. In , to commemorate the silver jubilee of the Queen, over 37 million Crowns were minted.

This is not the case. The Mint on its own website explained: 'Legal tender has a very narrow and technical meaning in the settlement of debts. It means a debtor cannot successfully be sued for non-payment if he pays into court in legal tender. As such, UK shops and banks are unlikely to accept them.

While it is legal tender, this does not mean that it can be put in your wallet, taken into a shop and used to pay for anything, and banks will not take them over the counter. According to Phil Mussell, from Coin News magazine, which works with the Mint, the issue with this reportedly dates back to Subsequently, those who held pre minted crowns, which were previously worth five shillings prior to 'decimal day' in , rushed to the bank to try and cash them in at a higher value.

After all, simply as a result of a change to commemorative crowns, everyone now thought they had a shot at increasing the value of some of their change twenty-fold. After all, he added, 'the Royal Mint is a private company, it's in the business of selling coins not buying them back.

Prior to that, circulating crowns had a value of 25p, a twentieth of the value. So if the petrol station or the bank proves a fruitless endeavour, where can you go? Lawrence Chard, founder and director of Blackpool-based coin and bullion dealer Chards, said he has sometimes paid his quarterly VAT or corporation tax bill in cash, albeit not with commemorative coins. He said those who want to do so can write to HMRC asking for an emergency paying slip. However, that still potentially leaves you back at square one, given you would need to persuade a bank branch or Post Office to take the coins.

But because they are still legal tender, you could, if you wanted to, get the taxman to take you to court and force them to accept these higher-value coins. That, after all, is the legal effect of something being denoted as legal tender. It's not to be recommended, because they'd probably make your life miserable afterwards. Similarly, as someone else on Reddit noted, you could get into debt to someone you don't like and fob the problem off to them.

Sometimes the Royal Mint will sell the coins in a set or with a case, so the total will cost more than 5 pounds. But the official value of the coin from the Royal Mint is still only 5 pounds. The same rules apply with one exception — British pound notes are printed by the Bank of England.

And the Bank of England does accept all currency that it has ever printed no matter the condition. That means they will accept any old notes that you have in your possession. We hope that answered everything you need to know about exchanging your 5 pound coins for legal tender or spending them.

We even added a section on old pound notes because people that have five pound coins tend to also have old pound notes. Anyway, the five pound coins are sometimes worth more than 5 pounds, so make sure to check the value before you take it to the Post Office or try to spend it. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Let us know via Facebook , Twitter or leave a comment below! Hi does the mint release coins and then tell you a couple of years later how many were minted..?

Are there no mintage figures for these others? Hope this helps. Thanks, Yasmin.