Menai Bridge £1 (2005)
The Menai Bridge £1 is the Welsh coin of the round pound bridges series, dated 2005, showing Thomas Telford's suspension bridge between Anglesey and the mainland. People check it when sorting through old round pounds or putting together all four bridges. It is the second of the four bridge £1 coins and one of the 28 £1 designs struck since 1983.
Menai Bridge £1 value
- Circulated
- typical £2.30, range £2 to £5
- Uncirculated
- typical £12, range £6 to £19
Worked out from 12 published prices (6 sold-price reports and 6 dealer prices), each condition from its own prices, checked in September 2026.
Rarity rank 17 of 26 ranked £1 designs, rarest first
Rarity: CommonThe Menai Bridge was struck in the greatest numbers of the four bridges coins, so worn examples from change are easy to find. Value rises with grade: sharp railings, a clear bridge and no knocks on the rim lift a coin, and brilliant uncirculated examples from the Royal Mint's 2005 pack are worth more than any taken from circulation. Since the round pound was withdrawn in October 2017, demand comes from collectors rather than from spending.
Menai Bridge £1 mintage and rarity
With 99,429,500 struck for circulation, the Menai Bridge £1 is the seventeenth rarest of the 26 ranked £1 designs and has the 165th lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Common band, for mintages 10,000,000 or more.
The next rarer £1 is the Oak Tree £1, with 75,618,989 struck, and the next more common is the Royal Arms £1, with 129,616,985 struck.
| Year | Circulation mintage | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 99,429,500 |
How to spot a Menai Bridge £1
A suspension bridge framed by a ring of railings and upright stanchions marks the Menai Bridge pound, with ONE POUND underneath. The date, 2005, is on the Queen's side only. The edge has a decorative pattern rather than lettering and no cross crosslet. The border is the fastest way to tell the four bridges apart: railings here, railway track on the Forth coin, canopy dags on the Egyptian Arch and struts on the Millennium Bridge.
Menai Bridge £1 design
Wales had its turn in 2005, the second year of a run of four round pounds that each picked a bridge from one nation of the United Kingdom. The choice was the Menai Suspension Bridge, which joins the island of Anglesey to the Welsh mainland across the Menai Strait. Thomas Telford designed it, and when it opened in the 1820s it was one of the world's first major suspension bridges. Edwina Ellis, who drew every coin in the series, set the bridge inside a frame of railings and stanchions circling the design, and put ONE POUND beneath it. The year 2005 appears only on the heads side, with Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Elizabeth II. Like its three companions, the Menai coin dropped the lettered edge of earlier round pounds for a pressed pattern representing bridges and pathways, and it carries no mint mark. Some references call the design the Menai Straits Bridge.
In the bridge set it followed the Forth Railway Bridge £1 of 2004 and came before the Egyptian Arch Bridge £1 of 2006.
Menai Bridge £1 specifications
- Denomination
- £1
- Year
- 2005
- Type
- Definitive
- Issue
- Issued for circulation
- Series
- Bridges (2004 to 2007)
- Occasion
- Wales's design in the round £1 bridges series, one bridge for each nation of the United Kingdom
- Designer
- Edwina Ellis
- Composition
- Nickel-brass
- Weight
- 9.5 g
- Diameter
- 22.5 mm
- Shape
- Round
- Edge
- Milled, with an incuse decorative pattern symbolising bridges and pathways; no edge inscription and no mint mark
- Obverse
- Elizabeth II, fourth portrait by Ian Rank-Broadley
Menai Bridge £1 questions
Is the Menai Bridge £1 rare?
No. Of the four bridges coins it had by far the biggest circulation mintage, so of the four it turns up most often.
Why is there no date on the bridge side of the Menai Bridge £1?
Round pounds carry the year on the heads side only. Here 2005 is part of the legend beside the Queen's head, and the bridge side has just the design and ONE POUND.
Is the Menai Bridge coin still legal tender?
Not since 15 October 2017. The round pound was withdrawn that day, just over six months after the 12-sided coin was introduced, and from then on the old coins went back through the banks.