The United Coindom

The Autumn Rugby Internationals kicked off today, so I confess to having done very little besides watching rugby and drinking tea.

Short of having been in Cardiff on match day, drinking Brains beer AND oh, I dunno, maybe Wales winning, (it was SO annoyingly close against Australia yet again) today was my idea of a perfect Saturday.

During half time, I was sorting out my loose change and discovered that for once I have rather a lot of it. (I sense a book buying spree coming on!)

But even better than that, I noticed for the first time just how many different pound coins we have.

Which made me look them all up here on the Royal Mint website: One Pound Coin Design And out of that little lot, I currently have:

1 Gateshead Millennium Bridge (in England)
1 Oak Tree representing England
1 Rose and Oak branch representing England

1 Celtic Cross representing Northern Ireland
2 Flax Plants representing Northern Ireland

4 Thistles representing Scotland

2 Dragon Passant representing Wales
1 Leek representing Wales
1 Menai Bridge (in Wales)

8 Royal Arms representing the UK
3 Shield of the Royal Arms representing the UK

I hadn't realised just how many different one pound coin designs are in circulation!

I'm almost tempted to try and hang on to one of each until I've managed to locate the ones I'm missing.

Almost.