Some Edinburgh businesses will still accept old £1 coins next week

SOME small businesses in the Capital will continue accepting the old round £1 coins when they are permanently replaced by the 12-sided version on Monday.
Poundland says it will accept old £1 coins until October 31Poundland says it will accept old £1 coins until October 31
Poundland says it will accept old £1 coins until October 31

The old coins will no longer be legal tender from Monday – and leading supermarkets including Lidl and Waitrose have confirmed they will only accept the new 12-sided coin. But some firms in Edinburgh will continue to take the old round £1 coins, along with the likes of Aldi and Tesco.

Kasaur Malik, manager at Sweet Service Newsagents, said: “We’ll continue to accept them. If an old lady comes in with them, we’re not exactly going to turn them away.

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“We’re not getting as many in now anyway, but I’ve been told RBS, which is my bank, will be allowing us to swap the old ones.”

Another newsagent manager said: “We plan to keep accepting them for a short period 
because a lot of tourists use them. I think it’s sensible to accept them.”

Edinburgh City Council has confirmed that all parking meters in the city have been upgraded to accept the new £1 coins – while machines are being modified so they no longer accept the old coins by Sunday.

Some Edinburgh newsagents have raised concerns about financial repercussions if their owners ask them to continue accepting outdated coins.

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One shop assistant, based in the city centre, said: “We don’t know what the bosses are going to decide, but we’re worried because we’d definitely have to arrange something with the banks in order to keep taking them.”

Other business managers are frustrated with the short turnover period between the new coin being introduced in March and the old £1 coin being axed.

One café manager in the Old Town said: “It’s going to be a worry for businesses anywhere.

“I don’t understand why they haven’t extended it longer because transactions at cafés like this are so quick. It might not seem massive, but in a transient city like this, I think the deadline should be extended.”

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But not all businesses in the Capital will be accepting the old coins after the weekend.

Zahid Mohammed, who runs News Trader in Newington, said: “The cut off hasn’t given us much time, but we’ve been told the bank won’t accept any of the coins past the 15th so we need to stick to that.”

Suzie Gooder, manager at Bibi’s Bakery on Hanover Street, said: “We’ve not given it much consideration, but we’ll likely do what we did with the £5 note – we’ll refer customers to the nearby bank to exchange them for the new ones. I imagine we’ll be able to manage.”

Gyms and launderettes which use lockers and machines will need to update their systems so the new coins will work.

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Ms Miller, who works at the Bendix Self-Service Laundrette, said: “We’ll have to change the mechanism on our dryer because it still only accepts the old ones, although the rest of our machines should be OK.”

Some banks and building societies will accept the old coins past midnight on Sunday, but HSBC, Barclays, Nationwide, Santander and Bank of Scotland said they would only swap coins for their own customers.