Tesco in Burnham-On-Sea has pledged to accept old round pound coins after the deadline for spending them this Sunday.
The supermarket giant will allow customers to pay with the old-style coins for a week after they cease to be legal tender on October 15th.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We’ve been updating our systems ready for the new pound coins, but to help customers who still have the old coins, we’ll continue to accept round pounds at our tills and self-service machines for an additional week.”
From midnight on Sunday October 15th, the round pound will lose its legal tender status, meaning stores cannot hand out old pound coins as change and can refuse to accept them as payment.
People have been urged to rummage through their piggy banks, wallets, pockets and behind sofas so that they can spend them, bank them or give them to charity before this date.
The new 12-sided pound coin, which resembles the old threepenny bit, entered circulation in March and boasts new high-tech security features to combat counterfeiting.
The production of the new coins came after concern about round pounds being vulnerable to sophisticated counterfeiting.
Around one in every 30 old-style pound coins in people’s change in recent years has been fake.
Major banks have said that while they encourage customers to allow enough time to hand in their old coins, they will continue to accept deposits of round pounds from their customers after October 15th.
