Presenting the new £1 coin.
Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg
The 12-sided £1 coin ($1.27) includes security features including a hologram and a dual-metal composition to make it harder to fake. But in a ritual dating to at least the year 1282, the coins were presented for the Trial of the Pyx in London on Tuesday. Below the pomp and ceremony in the opulent hall of the Goldsmiths’ Company lies rigorous conformity tests that will take until April to complete. Photographs by Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg