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
Pound sterling in the South Atlantic and the Antarctic with sterling, sterling was the currency of much of the Antarctic continent, including the Australian Antarctic Territory and the Ross Dependency. St. Helena used sterling currency as in the United Kingdom until 1976 when it began to issue its own banknotes at par with the pound sterling. In 1984, this territory also began to issue its own coinage, similar to the coinage of the United Kingdom but with different designs on the reverse. The St. Helena currency also circulates on Ascension Island, but not in the other part of the territory, Tristan da Cunha, where UK currency circulates. The Falkland