LONDON — When Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged that Britain would leave the European Union on Oct. 31, “do or die,” the government was so confident of the timeline that it minted thousands, possibly millions, of commemorative 50-pence Brexit coins including that date.
But the European Union has agreed to Britain’s request to push the departure by three months. Now, the coins are being scrapped along with that deadline. And, as with Brexit itself, this is not the first backtracking on such coins.
The Treasury did not disclose exactly how many Oct. 31 coins — in gold, silver and cupronickel versions — were produced, though British news reports have suggested that as many as 10 million coins had been planned.
All of them will be recycled, a Treasury spokesman said on Tuesday.
The Royal Mint and the Treasury declined to comment on the exact cost of designing and producing the coins.
The idea to produce commemorative Brexit coins was initially set in motion early this year by Philip Hammond, the chancellor of the Exchequer at the time. The Brexit deadline was then March 29, and Mr. Hammond arranged for 10,000 limited-edition coins to be minted with that date. The plan was to sell them to collectors for 10 pounds, about $13, apiece.
But the coins were left in limbo when Parliament repeatedly rejected the Brexit deal of Prime Minister Theresa May.
Mr. Hammond told the BBC in March that those coins could become collectors’ pieces, but the Treasury spokesman said on Tuesday that they were also being recycled.
The current chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, resurrected the plans for commemorative Brexit coins after assuming office this summer, and he ordered the production of 50-pence coins to coincide with the new deadline.
The silver and cupronickel coins were to go into mass circulation as legal tender, though the gold coins were not. The design — featuring an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on one side, and the Oct. 31 date with a inscription of “Peace, prosperity, and friendship with all nations” on the other — was approved by the Queen’s Privy Council on Oct. 8.
But Mr. Javid also miscalculated Britain’s ability to meet a Brexit deadline, and the metals will now be recycled — shredded, melted, purified, cooled and solidified.
The Treasury spokesman said that the department still planned to produce commemorative Brexit coins, and that they would enter circulation after the country has left the European Union.
Source : Nytimes
