Yahoo Finance More than 10 million commemorative Brexit 50p coins will be minted
More than 10 million commemorative “Brexit” 50p coins will be minted following Britain’s official departure from the EU.
Treasury sources told the Telegraph three million coins will be released into circulation by the end of October, as previously planned. However, an additional seven million will be struck in the upcoming 12 months.
The coins were originally intended to be as collectors' editions, costing £10 each. However, on the order of chancellor Sajid Javid, they will be put into mass production.
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The Queen and her Privy Council will sign off on the plans on Tuesday – a formal requirement giving them official legal tender status.
Despite this news, the coins, which will be marked with the words “friendship with all nations”, have yet to be minted – just weeks from the Brexit date. Just 1,000 “trial coins” have been produced so far, The Mirror reported earlier this week.
In a freedom of information (FOI) request response, the Mint said: "No coins have actually been minted.”
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However, it insisted it is on track to produce the coins by the deadline.
The European Union will decide this week whether a Brexit deal “is possible”. Prime minister Boris Johnson has insisted Britain will leave the EU on 31 October with or without a deal, despite warnings that a no-deal Brexit would hit the UK economy hard and cause debt to “skyrocket”.
In fact, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in association with Citi and the Nuffield Foundation, suggests a no-deal Brexit would push UK debt to its highest since the 1960s.
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“It is hard to imagine a set of short-term fiscal targets that would make sense both in the event of the UK leaving the EU with a deal, and in the event of leaving without a deal,” IFS said.
