Royal Mint in quest to make British pound coin foolproof

London

CAN Britain's oldest manufacturer beat modern counterfeiters?

With as many as 45 million British one-pound coins suspected fake, the Royal Mint is now making 1.5 billion new ones, which will enter circulation on Tuesday. Security features include a 12-sided bimetallic design, a hologram, fine lettering and even some secret tricks to beat crooks, the modern equivalent of Sir Isaac Newton's efforts to make the currency more secure in his tenure as Master of the Royal Mint some three centuries ago.