London £1 (2010)
The London £1 is the 2010 round pound from the capital cities series, showing the City of London's shield with its cross and upright sword. People look it up because its circulation issue was small for a round pound. It is one of the four capital city £1 coins and one of the 28 £1 designs struck since 1983.
London £1 value
- Circulated
- typical £5, range £3 to £11
- Uncirculated
- typical £15, range £10 to £22
Worked out from 17 published prices (8 price guides, 5 sold-price reports and 4 dealer prices), each condition from its own prices, checked in September 2026.
Rarity rank 3 of 26 ranked £1 designs, rarest first
Rarity: UncommonIts small circulation issue keeps even a worn London £1 above face value. Condition is the main factor: a coin with a sharp sword and crisp lettering is worth more than a scuffed one. Brilliant uncirculated coins in Royal Mint packs, sold singly and paired with Belfast, and proof strikings sit above anything from change. Fakes of the round pound were common, so check the edge motto too.
London £1 mintage and rarity
With 2,635,000 struck for circulation, the London £1 is the third rarest of the 26 ranked £1 designs and has the 82nd lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Uncommon band, for mintages 2,500,000 to 9,999,999.
The next rarer £1 is the Cardiff £1, with 1,615,000 struck, and the next more common is the Floral Scotland £1, with 5,185,000 struck.
| Year | Circulation mintage | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2,635,000 |
How to spot a London £1
Look for a large circle filled by a plain cross with a small sword in its top left quarter, and the word LONDON arched above it. Every capital cities coin has three small roundels underneath, here a dragon, a ship and a castle, so read the city name at the top. The edge should say DOMINE DIRIGE NOS and nothing more, as these coins have no mint mark. The date, 2010, is in the legend around Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen.
London £1 design
In 2010 The Royal Mint began a fourth run of national designs for the round £1 built around the badges of the four capital cities. London and Belfast came first, and Cardiff and Edinburgh followed in 2011. All four were the work of Stuart Devlin, who had held the Royal Warrant as Goldsmith and Jeweller to the Queen since 1982. His layout sets one city's badge large within a central circle and places the other three in small roundels beneath it. On this coin the big circle holds the shield of the City of London: the cross of St George with a sword standing point upwards in the upper left quarter. The cross stands for England's patron saint, and the sword is the emblem of the martyrdom of St Paul, patron of the City; an early seal showed the saint himself holding a sword. LONDON curves over the top, with ONE and POUND running down either side. The roundels show the Cardiff dragon, the Belfast ship and the Edinburgh castle. The milled edge carries the City's motto, DOMINE DIRIGE NOS, Latin for 'Lord, guide us'.
In the capital city set it was issued in 2010 together with the Belfast £1.
London £1 specifications
- Denomination
- £1
- Year
- 2010
- Type
- Definitive
- Issue
- Issued for circulation
- Series
- Capital Cities (2010 to 2011)
- Occasion
- England's design in the round £1 capital cities series, featuring the official badge of London
- Designer
- Stuart Devlin
- Composition
- Nickel-brass
- Weight
- 9.5 g
- Diameter
- 22.5 mm
- Shape
- Round
- Edge
- Milled, with incuse inscription DOMINE DIRIGE NOS; no mint mark
- Obverse
- Elizabeth II, fourth portrait by Ian Rank-Broadley
London £1 questions
Is the 2010 London £1 coin rare?
By round pound standards, yes. Its circulation issue was much smaller than most £1 designs, and well below the Belfast coin released at the same time, although the 2011 Edinburgh and Cardiff coins are scarcer still.
What does the edge of the London £1 say?
DOMINE DIRIGE NOS, the motto of the City of London, which translates from Latin as 'Lord, guide us'. There is no mint mark after the lettering on any of the capital cities coins.
Who designed the London £1?
Stuart Devlin, the goldsmith who designed all four capital cities pounds. The portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the other side is by Ian Rank-Broadley.