You've got less than a week to spend your old £1 coins

I’m going to start by saying right now: I’m quite sad we’re losing the old one pound coins. They felt really nice in your hand, especially when you had a few of the ol’ nuggets that you could line up together and spin round. Why did they have to change them? Well, rampant forgeries for one but still, what’s a few fake pound coins between friends?

Anyway, it’s - literally - time for change and you’ve probably already got a few of the 12-sided, silver ‘n’ gold new ‘uns in your pocket right now, seeing as it’s been six months since they were put into circulation.

But the end is in sight for our little round friends as they officially cease to be legal tender on 15 October - so you need to spend any you’ve got lying around by the end of the play on Saturday, supposedly.

But do you really?

Well, it seems the old ones are going to have a temporary reprieve, with a trade organisation representing 170,000 businesses advising its members to carry on accepting them, because of the ‘fairly short’ changeover period.

Mike Cherry, the national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, explained that, “While no business is obliged to accept the old coins beyond the deadline, it would help if small firms knew they were allowed a short transition period to collect the old coins if they wish to, and are willing to bank them, but not give out to customers. This would provide a useful community service, allowing customers a few weeks to get rid of the final few pound coins in circulation.”

It is believed that about 500 million are still in circulation, and Poundland are one of the stores that are planning to continue accepting the coins until 31 October, with 850 of their stores following the move. Barry Williams, the chain’s trading director, said: “Providing an extra convenience for shoppers to lighten their pockets while doing the weekly shop, rather than making a separate trip to the bank or post office, will come as good news.”

Meanwhile, major banks have said that they will continue to accept deposits of old £1 coins after 15 October.

But hang on - do you really want to deposit those round nuggets that sitting in your piggy bank?

Well, possibly not - since there’s a whole load of rare one pound coins which could net you a tidy sum - click here for a full list of those.

And it’s also worth checking out your new one pound coins - some of those are already worth substantially more than a quid - almost £3,000 in fact.

But, more than that, it’s worth keeping a few of them just to hold in your hands and remember the good times.

(Images: iStock/Rex)