Britain forced to melt down Brexit commemorative coins following ‘flextension’
The embossed coin would have proclaimed post-Brexit Britain as a land of 'peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations'. Photo: Twitter
The long-winded, messy Brexit proceedings have sparked a number of meltdowns on both sides of the English Channel.
Now, Britain’s Royal Mint has been forced into a literal meltdown, after Boris Johnson was forced to accept the European Union’s three-month Brexit ‘flextension’ offer.
In a move first announced by British Chancellor Sajid Javid, the government commissioned millions of commemorative 50 pence coins in time for the British prime minister’s ‘do or die’ deadline of October 31.
The engraved coins, made from gold, silver and cupro-nickel (a copper-nickel mix) would have trumpeted an uplifting post-Brexit message of ‘peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations’.
How much does it cost to make a 50p? I only ask because the FT report that it's going to cost taxpayers £11.5m to cancel the contract to mint 10 million Brexit coins that @BorisJohnson ordered with the date on.
For the Brexiteers reading that's £1.15 per 50p. pic.twitter.com/Un75PMX6Uq
— Jason J Hunter (Not a noble Lord) (@JJHTweets) October 26, 2019
But production on the coins was halted last week, once it became apparent Britain’s Parliament would reject Mr Johnson’s fast-tracked agreement.
A UK Treasury spokesman has since confirmed roughly three million coins will be melted down and ‘recycled’, with a new rollout of coins entering circulation following Britain’s eventual divorce from the European bloc.
The cost of the coin’s redesign will be footed by the Royal Mint at no further cost to taxpayers.
However, it remains to be seen whether the coins would be warmly accepted once they are released to the general public.
The Independent is reporting some Britons have threatened a boycott, vowing to return them to the bank if it enters their wallets.
“If enough of us do it, it will be a productivity drain and akin to a strike without striking. This, yet again, has all the hallmarks of dictatorship,” anti-Brexit councillor Eleanor Rylance wrote on Twitter.
Perhaps after all this time, this isn’t the change Britain wants to see in the world.
