In April of 2008 the British Royal Mint has announced that the British coins would feature a new design. Thus British currency officially started changing its coinage. It is worth mentioning that the old designs of British coins were used for about 4 decades. Before April of 2008 United Kingdom currency included coins with the image of Her Majesty The Queen on one side. For many centuries British coins featured the engraved images of kings and queens.

Since 1971, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has used a decimal system, one pound valuing 100 pence.

Since decimalization, the coins of the United Kingdom for the first time will feature new designs. The nation will be able to see the major change in the design of the legal tender coins in the late spring of 2008. New designs will be included on coins with denominations from 1 pence to 1 pound. These will feature a more contemporaneous Britain, the one of the 21^st century.