Today is the day of the launch of the UK’s new pound coin and the nation’s children are hoping to see more of them in their pocket money. Although the average weekly pocket money (£7.04) is at its highest level since 2007, almost half (41%) of kids think they should be getting more. This year’s figure is a 7% jump from last year (£6.55), and represents a whopping 500% increase from the £1.13 many of their parents would have been receiving in 1987. Despite that, 15% of children believe they receive the same or less than their parents did.

The figures are from the latest Halifax annual Pocket Money survey, which tracks the evolving saving and spending habits of the nations’ children and their parents. It’s likely all of them will have received the existing ‘round pound’ in their pocket money at some point but the coin, introduced in 1983, will be replaced today (28th March). That news seems to have gone unnoticed by many of today’s kids, with almost half (43%) initially unaware a new 12-sided coin is being introduced.

However, once told about the new bi-metallic pound, which the Royal Mint claims is the world’s most secure coin, excitement grew among children. More than two-thirds (69%) want to receive it in their pocket money and one in four (44%) said they’d pop it straight in their piggy bank for safekeeping. The British tradition of piggy banks is alive and well, with eight out of 10 (80%) children using one to save. Budding young savers are picking up the habit from their parents, more than three quarters of whom (76%) had a piggy bank as a child, and 62% said they still used one today.

Today’s children haven’t picked up all of their parents’ saving and spending habits. Only a fifth (21%) said they would spend a new pound coin on sweets, while almost a half (43%) of parents admitted this would have been their first purchase at that age.