Coins, almost one pound, for writer (6)
I believe the answer is:
pencil
'writer' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'coins almost one pound for' is the wordplay.
'coins' becomes 'pence' (penny is a kind of coin).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'one pound for' becomes 'il' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'pence' with its last letter taken off is 'penc'.
'penc'+'il'='PENCIL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pencil that I've seen before include "HB writer?" , "Graphite writer" , "implement in case?" , "Wooden writer" , "American bureaucrat -- purple niches (anag)" .)