The new £1 coin is going to cost Kirklees Council dear.

The Royal Mint will introduce a 12 sided £1 coin from Tuesday March 28 to combat counterfeiters.

While the change will protect the economy it is set to cost councils tens of thousands each.

A spokesperson for Kirklees Council confirmed they were expecting a £40,000 bill to alter all of the borough’s parking meters.

They said: “The introduction of the new shape £1 coin means that all our 194 pay and display machines will need to be recalibrated individually.”

The cost will involve contractors attending every machine, changing parts and re-programming it.

The new £1 coins will start appearing from March 28, but there will be a six-month change-over period when the new version and the current coins, which were introduced in 1983, are both legal tender.

Kirklees Council has confirmed the old £1 coin will still work in parking machines after the new £1 coin is introduced.

The British Parking Association has warned that the cost of updating around 100,000 parking machines will be at least £50m.

Meanwhile, around 500,000 vending machines will need to be upgraded, according the Automatic Vending Association, which estimates there will be a cost of more than £30 million to the vending industry.

The Royal Mint has just launched a new website urging organisations to get ready now, or risk problems in March. Visit www.thenewpoundcoin.com

Here’s all you need to know about the new £1 coin:

Why is the current £1 coin being replaced?

The current £1 coin is vulnerable to sophisticated counterfeiters with about one-in-thirty in circulation thought to be fake.

How is the new £1 coin harder to counterfeit?

It’s made of two metals and has a hologram that changes from a ‘£’ symbol to the number ‘1’ when seen from different angles. A hidden high security feature is also built in.

Who designed the new £1 coin?

The reverse side of the coin, the ‘tails’, shows the English rose, the Welsh leek, the Scottish thistle and the Northern Irish shamrock emerging from one stem within a royal coronet. This was designed by David Pearce. David won a public design competition, of over 6,000 entries, at the age of 15. The other side of course features a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen.

When will the existing £1 be removed from circulation?

After a six month co-circulation period the legal tender status of the existing £1 will be withdrawn on October 15, 2017.

What should I do with my existing £1 coins after legal tender status is removed?

Following demonetisation, the current round £1 coin can continue to be deposited in most banks.