The new coin will be introduced into Britain in 2017 and features the same shape as the old threepenny bit, which was withdrawn in 1971.

The current £1 coin has become increasingly vulnerable to forgery; around one in 30 of them are believed to be counterfeited.

The Royal Mint says the new design will come with a host of cutting-edge features to make it the most secure coin in the world. This includes two colours of metal, 12 sides and the use of anti-counterfeiting technology, which has been adapted from banknotes to be embedded in coins for the first time.

It will hit our market around the same time as Jane Austen is set to replace Charles Darwin in a new design of the £10 banknote. This followed a high profile campaign that highlighted the lack of women on UK banknotes - apart from the Queen - after it was announced that Sir Winston Churchill would replace social reformer Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note from 2016.

Behold the new 12-sided £1 coin, designed by a teenager