British Shops Refuse to Give up on Old Pound

The old pound coin will be expired and withdrawn from circulation on October 15/ IMAGE: GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR
The old pound coin will be expired and withdrawn from circulation on October 15/ IMAGE: GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR
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British Shops Refuse to Give up on Old Pound

The old pound coin will be expired and withdrawn from circulation on October 15/ IMAGE: GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR
The old pound coin will be expired and withdrawn from circulation on October 15/ IMAGE: GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR

Thousands of shops are likely to ignore the Royal Mint’s deadline of Sunday to stop accepting old £1 coins.

A trade organization representing 170,000 businesses has advised its members to continue taking the coins, because the changeover period with the new coins has been so short.

From midnight on Sunday 15 October, the coins will lose their legal tender status. After this date, shops and restaurants should no longer accept them. According to the Guardian, with a week to go, about 500 million coins are still in circulation.

Poundland (the British version of one dollar shops) said more than 850 of its UK stores would continue accepting the coins until October 31.

According to AFP, the new coin has 12 sides, and is not disk-shaped like the old one. The ministry said it has security features to thwart criminals, noting that one in every 30 £1 coins in the market has been fake.

The current pound has accompanied the British consumers in their daily lives for more than 30 years, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

The new coin is thinner, slightly lighter, and a little bit larger than the newly approved one.

One of the new pound’s faces still feature the photo of Queen Elizabeth II, while the other face features the symbols of England (Rose), Scotland (thorns), Wales (Balls) and Northern Ireland (clover) emerging from the royal crown.



Wildfires Force Evacuation of Visitors and Staff at 2 National Parks in US West

This photo provided by the National Parks Service shows smoke from wildfires in the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park in Colorado on Thursday, July 10, 2025, after high temperatures, very low humidity, gusty winds, and very dry vegetation across the region led to extreme fire danger. (NPS via AP)
This photo provided by the National Parks Service shows smoke from wildfires in the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park in Colorado on Thursday, July 10, 2025, after high temperatures, very low humidity, gusty winds, and very dry vegetation across the region led to extreme fire danger. (NPS via AP)
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Wildfires Force Evacuation of Visitors and Staff at 2 National Parks in US West

This photo provided by the National Parks Service shows smoke from wildfires in the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park in Colorado on Thursday, July 10, 2025, after high temperatures, very low humidity, gusty winds, and very dry vegetation across the region led to extreme fire danger. (NPS via AP)
This photo provided by the National Parks Service shows smoke from wildfires in the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park in Colorado on Thursday, July 10, 2025, after high temperatures, very low humidity, gusty winds, and very dry vegetation across the region led to extreme fire danger. (NPS via AP)

Visitors and staff at two national parks in the US West have been evacuated because of wildfires.

Gunnison National Park, about 260 miles (418 kilometers) southwest of Denver, closed Thursday morning after lighting sparked blazes on both the North Rim and South Rim of the Black Canyon, the park said.

The wildfire has burned 2.5 square miles (6.5 square kilometers), with no containment of the perimeter.

The conditions there have been ripe for wildfire with hot temperatures, low humidity, gusty winds and dry vegetation, the park said, adding that weather will remain a concern Friday.

The Grand Canyon's North Rim in Arizona also closed Thursday because of a wildfire on adjacent Bureau of Land Management land near Jacob Lake. The Coconino County Sheriff's Office said it helped evacuate people from an area north of Jacob Lake and campers in the Kaibab National Forest nearby.

The fire began Wednesday evening after a thunderstorm moved through the area, fire officials said. It has burned about 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers) with zero containment.