New £1 coin: Walsall designer more focused on exams than 12-sided quid

David Pierce beat more than 6,000 other entries in a nationwide competition to have his design featured on the tails side of the 12-sided coin.

His idea features a rose, a leek, a thistle and a shamrock - the four national flowers of the nations of the United Kingdom.

The 17-year-old from Walsall said: "I'm quite humbled to be able to have a part in the creation of the new coin.

"It's a nice experience.

"I'm excited the day is finally here, but I've got A-Levels to focus on now.

"I've put this to the back of my mind."

David was encouraged to enter the competition two years ago by his design and technology teacher.

He followed the broad brief – entrants were only told the coin would have 12 sides, be bimetallic like the £2 coin, and needed to "unambiguously represent" the UK – and sketched various designs.

After numerous drawings, he hit upon the idea of using the four national flowers.

He said: "I thought it might be a good thing to have a go at.

"I wanted to draw upon the past, but put a bit of a new take on it.

"So I decided to weave the English rose, Welsh leek, Scottish thistle and Northern Irish Shamrock together inside the crown."

He submitted his design just two hours before the deadline, and was surprised when he was pulled out of a class to answer a phone call in March 2015 .

On the other end of the line was then chancellor George Osborne, who informed the Queen Mary's Grammar School pupil that his design had been selected as the winner.

Among the thousands of entries for the design, sent in by professional artists and historians amongst others, were images of teacups, rainclouds, the London Eye and even the Rolling Stones' famous lips and tongue logo.

The Government says the new quid, which resembles the old threepenny bit, will be the world's most secure coin in circulation.

More than 2.2 billion old coins will now need to be replaced.