Right on schedule, the Royal Mint has decided that what Britain’s economy desperately needs during a period of wage stagnation and interest rate uncertainty is a brand new coin nobody asked for. The 10p piece—a denomination so small that most people already treat it as a rounding error—now features King Charles III and a Scottish grouse that is apparently close to extinction. Which is perfect symbolism, really. Nothing says “we have our finances under control” like minting a coin that celebrates something dying.
Let us be clear about what has happened here. While inflation remains sticky, mortgage rates remain punishing, and millions of people are quietly doing the math on whether they can afford to heat their homes this winter, someone at the Royal Mint looked at the situation and thought: what this moment needs is a new coin featuring an endangered bird. It is the economic equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, except the chairs are made of copper-plated steel and cost money to produce.
The grouse, naturally, is on the verge of extinction. The coin, equally naturally, will be worthless in real terms within months—inflation will have eaten more value than the metal is worth. So we have created a tiny, expensive tribute to something disappearing, to commemorate a time when our purchasing power is also disappearing. The symbolism is so perfectly, accidentally honest that it almost hurts.
If you spot one in your change, do not spend it. Frame it. It is the most accurate representation of modern economic policy we have ever minted.