Pobjoy Mint

British Pobjoy Mint is a privately held company-sector mint located in Surrey, England, which produces commemorative coins, medal, tokens and bullion.[2] The mint also manufacturers circulating currency for some British Overseas Territories and sovereign countries including Sierra Leone and Vanuatu.

Pobjoy Mint Ltd.
TypePrivate limited company
IndustryPrecious metals production
Founded1965[1]
FounderDerek Pobjoy
HeadquartersSurrey,
Tadworth
,
United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsNon-circulating legal tender commemorative coins, circulating coinage, medals and medallions, tokens
WebsitePobjoy Mint

History
Pobjoy Mint

The mint was founded in 1965 by Derek Pobjoy who purchased a coin press after leaving his father Ernest Pobjoy's jewellery and masonry business to set up a mint.[2] Upon the death of Winston Churchill in the same year the small mint produced a series of gold medals to commemorate coins.

Since 1974, the mint has become involved in the production and international sale of new-issue postage stamps and currently exclusively coordinates the coin and stamp programmes of seven countries (Ascension Island, Bahamas, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and Tristan da Cunha).[2]

As manufacturers of gold chains, gilt and enamel badges and escutcheons, regalia and insignia of all kinds, the Pobjoy Mint has been contractor to the British Crown Agents and various London jewellers, for whom it has executed commissions involving precious metals and gemstones of all kinds.[2]

Numismatic developments

In the 1970s, the company developed a new metal alloy similar to German silver known as Virenium which consisted of 81% copper, 10% zinc and 9% nickel.[3] This alloy has been used in non-circulating commemoratives since 1978.

In 1983, the company also created the Manx noble, a bullion coin containing one troy ounce of platinum. It was the first investment coin to be made from 0.9995 fine platinum. Its production ran for six years from 1983 to 1989. The noble has legal tender status although, like the South African gold Krugerrand, its value is defined only by its precious metal content as it has no numismatic value.

The mint also produced the Isle of Man's angel gold coin, from 1984 to 2016. In 1999, Pobjoy Mint issued the world's first titanium coin, the 1999 Gibraltar Millennium £5 coin.[2]

Countries and governments

The Pobjoy Mint has struck non-circulating (commemorative), circulating and pattern coins for nearly 20% of the world's governments and central banks as well as undertaking sub-contracted work for certain national mints. Many medallion issues have also been produced, notably for Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Arab States. The mint has produced eighty different medallions for the World Wide Fund for Nature collection.

The mint has struck coins for the following territories[2][4]

References
  1. "Company Description". First Directory Ltd. June 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
  2. "Pobjoy Mint About us". Pobjoy Mint. Archived from the original on 21 February 2010. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  3. Diracdelta (2010). "Science and engineering encyclopedia v2.4:Virenium". Archived from the original on 15 December 2010. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  4. "Pobjoy Mint". Coin Week. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  5. "Pobjoy Mint and Isle of Man Partnership Ending". Coinnews.net. 22 July 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
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