Coins of the pound sterling coins' designs. As of 31 March 2016, there were an estimated 30.14 billion coins circulating in the United Kingdom. The first decimal coins were circulated in 1968. These were the five pence (5p) and ten pence (10p), and had values of one shilling (1/-) and two shillings (2/-), respectively, under the pre-decimal £sd system. The decimal coins are minted in copper-plated steel (previously bronze), nickel-plated steel, cupronickel and nickel-brass. The two-pound coins, and, as from 28 March 2017 the new one-pound coins, are bimetallic. The coins are discs, except for the twenty pence and fifty pence pieces, both of which
History of pound sterling in Oceania History of pound sterling in Oceania The pound sterling was the currency of many, but not all parts of the British Empire. This article looks at the history of the pound sterling in the Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific region. The British victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 heralded the beginning of a new world order in which Britain would be the supreme world power for the next one hundred years. At the time of Waterloo, the British Empire consisted of the New World territories in the West Indies and North America which had been retained following the