The Royal Mint has revealed that the first 'forged' pound coin is the result of a production glitch.
The new 12-sided coin came into circulation last month, with the Royal Mint hailing it as the 'world's most secure coin'.
Charity worker Roy Wright told the Sun he was shocked once he spotted 'subtle differences' on the coin, such as missing detail on the top of the thistle on the reverse of the coin.
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But the Royal Mint has released a statement, saying: "The Royal Mint has not had an opportunity to examine the coin, but is confident that this is not counterfeit.
"We are not aware of any counterfeits entering circulation but welcome the public's caution."
It added: "The organisation produces around five billion coins each year, and will be striking 1.5 billion new £1 coins in total.
"As you would expect, we have tight quality controls in place, however variances will always occur in a small number of coins, particularly in the striking process, due to the high volumes and speed of production."
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Roy's quid is on the left. Credit: SWNS
Roy said his partner was given the coin from their local Co-Op after buying some lottery tickets.
He explained: "I have a bedside lamp which casts a different shade to the main light and as the coin passed underneath it in my hands one of the coins looked different.
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"I then compared it against three of the normal pound coins and realised it was completely different. It has a different thickness and is a different colour."
"The coin is completely different and is more rounded around the edge," Roy added.
"There is clearly space between the engraving lines, it's a different size, the Queen's head is to the left, and there is no detail of the head of the thistle - it's just a blob.
"The stem of the coin has got no detail on it, there are a lot of things wrong with it."
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Understandably, he raised the alarm and informed the Royal Mint as soon as he could.
Roy's coin on the left, again. Credit: SWNS
The new one pound coins feature a hologram-like image at the bottom, which changes from a '£' symbol to a '1' depending on how your hold it. It also has micro-lettering and a 'high security feature' built-in.
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Speaking to the Telegraph, numismatist Dominic Chorney said: "Mis-strikes have been valuable in the past, though it is difficult to gauge a value in this case, since this is the first piece to come to light."
However, misprinted coins have reached more than 250 times their face value in the past.
Source: The Sun and The Telegraph
Featured Image Credit: SWNS