It's not even being introduced today - it won't be released until 2017. I believe that's mainly because every machine that accepts the £1 coin has to adapt. Apparently that's going to cost £20 million.
>> "The formula of the additive is now a secret waiting to be stolen."
True but it's possible that this, plus the strange physical design of the coin, could increase the cost of counterfeiting to make it unprofitable.
An Australian company was selling "trade secret" additives as an anti-counterfeiting measure that they said were unique to each client... but were actually bought in bulk from China and could easily be reverse engineered.
>> "The formula of the additive is now a secret waiting to be stolen."
True but it's possible that this, plus the strange physical design of the coin, could increase the cost of counterfeiting to make it unprofitable.