New £1 coins with holes and blemishes are making some people a mint

New £1 coins with holes and blemishes are being auctioned online.

The new coin had been hailed as the most secure in the world.

Consumers have expressed confusion at being handed the recently released 12-sided pound with apparent minting problems.

Some coins have lost the silver centre, which features the Queen’s head, entirely.

The Royal Mint said such “variances” were always likely to slip past its quality control due to the volume of coins being made at speed.

Warped pounds are now being auctioned online with some starting prices as high as £5,000.

Early teething problems have hampered the launch of the new design, including incompatibility with coin-operated machines and shopping trolleys.

The old coin and the new coin will co-exist together for a period of around six months, until the round pound ceases to be legal tender on October 15.

Three million of the modern versions have been made at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, South Wales per day.

A Royal Mint spokeswoman said: “The Royal Mint produces around five billion coins each year, and will be striking 1.5bn 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.”