An engraving of a full English breakfast was considered to feature on the new £1 coin, the Royal Mint's chief engraver has said.

Gordon Summers said the fry-up was one of the most popular of more than 6,000 entries in a nationwide competition to find a design to appear on the tails side of the coin.

He told The Times: "You would be surprised at how many representations of the full English we had.

"We only really had 30 to 40 distinct ideas and great British breakfasts featured prominently.

"The breakfast designs were ruled out because the coin had to feature something that represented the four home nations and it had to be appropriate."

The competition was instead won by 15-year-old David Pearce, from Walsall, whose design featured a rose, leek, thistle and shamrock emerging from a Royal Coronet.

While the Royal Mint averted any questions about the breakfast appearing on the opposite side of the coin to the Queen, the Bank of England came under fire for using traces of animal fat to produce the new £5 note.

David adds:

To read the complete article, see:
Why Royal Mint took full English fry-up off pound coin menu(www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/national/article/Why-Royal-Mint-took-full-English-fry-up-off-pound-coin-menu-0ac2e596-8d16-4b16-85da-97242f5c90c3-ds)