Royal Mint

Coin of Alfred the Great. Medieval Latin inscription: ELFRED[US] REXX [sic] ("Alfred the King")

The history of coins in Great Britain can be traced back to the second century BC when they were introduced by Celtic tribes from across the English Channel. The first record of coins being minted in Britain is attributed to Kentish tribes such as the Cantii who around 80–60 BC imitated those of Marseille through casting instead of hammering.[5] After the Romans began their invasion of Britain in AD 43, they set up mints across the land, including in London which produced Roman coins for some 40 years before closing. A mint in London reopened briefly in 383 AD until closing swiftly as Roman rule in Britain came to an end. For the next 200 years, no coins appear to have been minted in Britain until the emergence of English kingdoms in 650 AD when as many as 30 mints are recorded across Britain with one being established in London.[6] Control of Britain's mints alternated as different tribes battled over territory. In 886 AD, Alfred the Great recaptured London from the Danelaw and began issuing silver pennies bearing his portrait;[7] this is regarded as the start of the continuous history of the Royal Mint.[8]

The Tower of London in 1647

In 1279, the country's numerous mints were unified under a single system whereby control was centralised to the mint within the Tower of London. Mints outside of London were reduced, with only a few local and episcopal mints continuing to operate.[9] Pipe rolls containing the financial records of the London mint show an expenditure of £729 17s 8½d and records of timber bought for workshops.

Individual roles at the mint were well established by 1464. The master-worker was charged with hiring engravers and the management of moneyers, while the Warden was responsible for witnessing the delivery of dies. A specialist mint board was set up in 1472 to enact a 23 February indenture which vested the mint's responsibilities into three main roles: a warden, a master and comptroller.

In the early 16th century, mainland Europe was in the middle of an economic expansion; England however was suffering with financial difficulties brought on by excessive government spending. By the 1540s wars with France and Scotland led Henry VIII to enact The Great Debasement, which saw the amount of precious metal in coin significantly reduced.[10] In order to further gather control of the country's currency, monasteries were dissolved, which effectively ended major coin production outside of London.

In 1603, the Union of Crowns of England and Scotland under King James I led to a partial union of the two kingdoms' currencies, the pound Scots and the pound sterling. Due to [Scotland heavily debasing its silver coins, a Scots mark was worth just 13½d compared to an English mark which was worth 6s 8d (80d). To bridge the difference between the values, unofficial supplementary token coins, often made from lead, were made by unauthorised minters across the country. By 1612, there were 3,000 such unlicensed mints producing these tokens, none of them paying anything towards the government. The Royal Mint, not wanting to divert manpower away from minting more profitable gold and silver coins, hired outside agent Lord Harington who under licence started issuing copper farthings in 1613. Private licenses to mint these coins were revoked in 1644, which led traders to resume minting their own supplementary tokens. In 1672, the Royal Mint finally took over the production of copper coinage.

Charles I Civil War half-crown

In 1630, some time before the outbreak of the English Civil War, England signed a treaty with Spain which ensured a steady supply of silver bullion to the Tower mint. Additional branch mints to aid the one in London were set up, including one at Aberystwyth Castle in Wales. In 1642, parliament seized control of the Tower mint. After Charles I, tried to arrest the Five Members he was forced to flee London, and established at least 16 emergency mints across the British Isles in Carlisle, Chester, Colchester, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, Exeter, Newark, Pontefract, Salisbury, Scarborough, parts of Cornwall including Truro, Weymouth, Worcester, and York (see also siege money).

After raising the royal standard in Nottingham marking the beginning of the war, Charles called upon loyalist mining engineer Thomas Bushell, the owner of a mint and silver mine in Aberystwyth, to move his operations to the royalist-held Shrewsbury, possibly within in the grounds of Shrewsbury Castle. The mint there was however short-lived, operating for no more than three months before Charles ordered Bushell to relocate the mint to his headquarters in the royal capital of Oxford. The new Oxford mint was established on 15 December 1642 in New Inn Hall, the present site of St. Peter's College. There, silver plates and foreign coins were melted down and in some cases just hammered into shape to produce coins quickly. Bushell was appointed the mint's warden and master-worker, and he laboured alongside notable engravers Nicholas Briot, Thomas Rawlins and Nicholas Burghers, the later of whom being appointed Graver of Seals, Stamps and Medals in 1643. When Prince Rupert took control of Oxford that same year, Bushell was ordered to move to Bristol Castle where he continued minting coins until it fell to parliamentary control on 11 September 1645, effectively ending Bushell's involvement in the civil war mints.

In Southern England in November 1642, the king ordered royalist MP Richard Vyvyan to build one or more mints in Cornwall, where he was instructed to mint coins from whatever bullion could be obtained and deliver it to Ralph Hopton, a commander of royalist troops in the region. Vyvyan built a mint in Truro and was its Master until 1646 when it was captured by parliamentarians. In nearby Exeter, which had been under control of Westminster since the beginning of the war, a mint was ordered to be set up after parliament debated the proposal on 8 December 1642. After approval was granted, a mint and moneyers were dispatched on 8 December 1642 to the town, which was under constant threat of attack by loyalist troops. In September 1643, the town was captured by the Cornish Royalist Army led by Prince Maurice, leading to Vyvyan moving his nearby mint in Truro to the now recaptured town. The exact location of the mint in Exeter is unknown; however, maps from the time show a street named Old Mint Lane near Friernhay, which was to be the site of a 1696 Recoinage mint. Much less is known about the mint's employees, with only Richard Vyvyan and clerk Thomas Hawkes recorded.[11]

Commonwealth Unite 1653

1658 Cromwell Crown

Following Charles I's execution in 1649, the newly formed Commonwealth of England established its own set of coins, which for the first time used English rather than Latin and were plainly designed compared to those previously issued under the monarchy.[12] The government invited French engineer Peter Blondeau, who worked at the Paris Mint, to come to London in 1649 in the hope of modernising the country's minting process. In France, hammer stuck coins had been banned from the Paris Mint since 1639 and replaced with milled coinage.[13] After arriving, it was not until 9 May 1651 that his testing began in Drury House, having first required permission from parliament. He initially produced milled silver pattern pieces of half-crowns, shillings and sixpences; however rival moneyers favouring hammer stuck coins continued using the old hammering method. In 1656, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell ordered engraver Thomas Simon to cut a series of dies featuring his bust and for them to be minted using the new milled method. Few of Cromwell's coins entered circulation; Cromwell died in 1658 and the Commonwealth collapsed two years later. Without Cromwell's backing of milled coinage, Peter Blondeau returned to France, leaving England to continue minting hammer struck coins.

Johnson Smirke Building in 2007

Construction started in 1805 on the new purpose-built mint on Tower Hill, opposite the Tower of London, and it was completed by 1809. In 1812, the move became official: the keys of the old mint were ceremoniously delivered to the Constable of the Tower.[17] Facing the front of the site, stood the Johnson Smirke Building, named for its designer James Johnson and builder Robert Smirke. Construction was supervised by the architect John Lidbury Poole (father of the famous singer, Elizabeth Poole).[18] This building was flanked on both sides by gatehouses behind which another building housed the mint's new machinery. A number of other smaller buildings were also erected, which housed mint officers and staff members. The entire site was protected by a boundary wall which was patrolled by the Royal Mint's military guard.

By 1856, the mint was beginning to prove inefficient: there were irregularities in minted coins' fineness and weight. Instructed by Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, the Master of the Mint Thomas Graham was informed that unless the mint could raise its standards and become more economical it would be broken up and placed under management by contractors. Graham sought advice from German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann, who in turn recommended his student George Frederick Ansell to resolve the mint's issues. In a letter to the Treasury dated 29 October 1856, Ansell was put forward as candidate. He was appointed as a temporary clerk on 12 November 1856, with a £120 a year salary.[19]

Upon taking office, Ansell discovered that the weighing of metals at the mint was extremely loose. At the mint, it had been the custom to weigh silver to within 0.5 troy ounces (oz.) (15.5 g) and gold to a pennyweight (0.05 oz.); however these standards meant losses were being made from overvalued metals. In one such case Ansell delivered 7920.00 oz. of gold to the mint, where it was weighed by an official at 7918.15 oz., a difference of 1.85 oz. Requesting a second weighing on more accurate scale, the bullion was certified to weigh 7919.98 oz., far closer to the previous measurement which was off by 960 grains. To increase the accuracy of weights, more precise weighing equipment was ordered and the tolerance was revised to 0.10 oz. for silver and 0.01 oz. for gold. Between 1856 and 1866, the old scales were gradually removed and replaced with scales made by Messrs. De Grave, Short, and Fanner; winners of a 1862 International Exhibition prize award for work relating to balances.[19]

Ansell also noticed a loss of gold during the manufacturing process. He found that 15 to 20 oz. could be recovered from the sweep, that is the leftover burnt rubbish from the minting process, which was often left in open boxes for many months before being removed. Wanting to account for every particle, and knowing that it was physically impossible for gold just to disappear, he put down the lost weight to a combination of oil, dust and different types of foreign matter amongst the gold.

In 1859, the Royal Mint rejected a batch of gold that was found to be too brittle for the minting of gold sovereigns. Analysis revealed the presence of small amounts of antimony, arsenic and lead. With Ansell's background in chemistry, he persuaded the Royal Mint to allow him to experiment with the alloy, and was ultimately able to produce 167,539 gold sovereigns.[20] On a second occasion in 1868, it was again discovered that gold coins, this time totalling £500,000 worth, were being produced with inferior gold. Although the standard practice at the mint was for rejected coins (known as brockages) to be melted down, many entered general circulation and the mint was forced to return thousands of ounces of gold to the Bank of England. Although Ansell offered to re-melt the substandard coins, his offer was rejected, causing a row between him and senior mint chiefs, which ultimately led to him being removed from his position at the mint.[21]

Gold Melting Process (1870)

After relocating to its new home on Tower Hill, the Mint came under increased scrutiny of how it dealt with unrefined gold that had entered the country. The Master of the Mint had been responsible for overseeing the practice since the position's inception in the 1300s. However the refinery process proved too costly and suffered from a lack of accountability from the master. A Royal Commission was set up in 1848 to address these issues; it recommended that the refinery process be outsourced to an external agency, thereby removing the refining process from the mint's responsibilities. The opportunity to oversee the Mint's refinery was taken up by Anthony de Rothschild, a descendant of the Rothschild family and heir to the multinational investment banking company N M Rothschild & Sons. Rothschild secured a lease from the government in January 1852, purchasing equipment and premises adjacent to the Royal Mint on 19 Royal Mint Street under the name of Royal Mint Refinery.

Royal Mint, Sydney in 1888

As Britain's influence as a world power expanded, with colonies being established abroad, a greater need for currency led to the Royal Mint opening satellite branches overseas. In Australia, the local Legislative Council petitioned the UK government to establish a branch of the Royal Mint in Sydney (Sydney Mint) after prospector Edward Hargraves discovered gold in Ophir, New South Wales in 1851. The measure gained royal assent in 1853, and the Deputy Master of the Royal Mint in London made plans to open the Royal Mint's first overseas branch within the colony. The Royal Mint's Superintendent of Coining travelled to Australia to oversee its establishment on Macquarie Street within the southern wing of Sydney Hospital, where it opened in 1854. Its success led to the opening of Melbourne Mint on 2 June 1872 which cost £368,350 and Perth Mint which opened on 20 June 1899. In 1926, after operating for 72 years, the Sydney Mint closed due to its inferior technology and capabilities being superseded by those in Melbourne and Perth. After Australia was federalised in 1901, Great Britain continued to own the mints until as late as 1 July 1970, when they became statutory authorities of the Government of Western Australia.

In Canada, which had been under British rule since 1763, British coins circulated alongside those of other nations until 1858, when London started producing coins for the newly established Canadian dollar. As Canada developed, in 1890, calls were made for a mint to be built in Ottawa to facilitate the country's gold mines. The new mint was opened on 2 January 1908 by Lord Grey, producing coins for circulation, including Ottawa Mint sovereigns. In 1931, under the Statute of Westminster, the mint came under the control of the Government of Canada, and was subsequently renamed the Royal Canadian Mint.[22]

Hong Kong silver dollar (1867)

A fifth branch of the Royal Mint was established in Mumbai (Bombay), India on 21 December 1917 as part of a wartime effort. It struck sovereigns from 15 August 1918 until 22 April 1919, but closed in May 1919.[23][24] A sixth and final overseas mint was established in the Union of South Africa in Pretoria on 1 January 1923, producing £83,114,575 worth of sovereigns in its lifetime. As South Africa began cutting ties with Britain, the mint closed on 30 June 1941, but was later reopened as the South African Mint.[25]

Although just six mints were officially controlled by London's Royal Mint, many more independent mints were set up in parts of the British Empire. In New Westminster, British Columbia the British Columbia gold rushes led to a mint being established in 1862 under Governor James Douglas. It produced a few gold and silver coins before being shut down in 1862 to aid the city of Victoria in becoming the region's provincial capital.[26] On 26 February 1864, an Order in Council requested the founding of an independent mint (Hong Kong Mint) in British Hong Kong to issue silver and bronze coins.[27][28] But this mint was short lived, due to its coins being heavily debased, causing significant losses. The site was sold to Jardine Matheson in 1868 and the mint machinery sold to the Japanese Mint in Osaka.[29]

New Zealand's $1 and $2 coins are minted by the Royal Mint in the United Kingdom. The 10 cent, 20 cent, and 50 cent coins are minted by the Royal Canadian Mint. Other mints the Bank has used over time include the Royal Australian Mint, the Norwegian Mint and the South African Mint Company. The F4 Coin mintings data has details of the number and value of coin mintages.[30]

Royal Mint in Llantrisant

On 1 March 1966, the government announced plans to decimalise the nation's currency,[34] thereby requiring the withdrawal and re-minting of many millions of new coins. At its current site on Tower Hill, the mint had suffered from lack of space for many years, and it would be inadequate to meet the anticipated high demand a recoinage would entail.[35] A possible move to a more suitable site had been discussed as far back as 1870, when Deputy Master of the Mint Charles Fremantle had recommended it in his first annual report. At the time, it had been suggested that the valuable land at Tower Hill could be sold to finance the purchase of land at nearby Whitefriars, London and pay for a new mint building.[36] However, after many years of subsequent debate by parliament it had been decided that improvements could be made to the existing site at Tower Hill. With Decimal Day set for 1971 the government quickly went about deciding on where to establish the new mint.

Over twenty sites were considered, including suggestions for Ulster and Scotland;[37] however, the small Welsh town of Llantrisant, ten miles (16 km) northwest of Cardiff, was eventually chosen.[38] Work on the new mint began in August 1967 with the construction of a blank treatment plant and a plant for striking. This first phase of the mint was formally opened on 17 December 1968 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and Prince Charles. There had been fears that the Royal family would face protests because of the Investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales; however, no such protests materialised.[39] The second phase of construction began in 1973 and included the addition of a means to mint coins from raw metals; thus completing the full minting process. Upon completion the final cost for the land, buildings and plant came to £8 million.[40] Coin minting gradually shifted to the new site over the next seven years, and the last coin, a gold sovereign, was struck in London in November 1975.

Royal Mint logo before becoming a government-owned company

After moving to Wales, the mint struggled to be profitable as the Western world fell into a deep recession during the early 1970s. To combat a rising national debt, the mint was established as a trading fund on 1 April 1975, which required it to become self-financing. This measure proved successful, and the mint started to become more profitable through heavy exports. In April 1990, the mint became an Executive Agency;[41] however, by 2001, the mint had reported its first annual loss: a result attributed to only securing 5% of new Euro coin production rather than the projected 20%. Despite this the mint began to diversify its product range by offering items outside their usual coin-related merchandise. Around this time, the mint was selling different types of jewellery, commemorative plates and figurines,[42] eventually creating its own Royal Mint Classics range of collectible goods. This part of the business proved popular in attracting new customers, but it suffered from poor product development. Its products included a hip flask with an embedded £2 coin, an Edinburgh Crystal clock combined with a millennium Crown, and a Wedgwood plate featuring Britannia.[43] In 2007, the Mint decided to resume its focus on coins, downsizing non-coin related business and discontinuing its Classics range.[44]

The 2008 global financial crisis was another financial blow: a rescue package costing £500 billion was announced to help stabilise Britain's banking system. This led to fears that the government would attempt to finance the cost by selling off state-owned organisations. In his 2009, pre-budget report the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling stated that the Treasury would "explore the potential benefits of alternative future models for the Royal Mint".[45][46] A month later in his 2009 United Kingdom budget, he recommended that the mint be made a company with a view to it being sold.[47]

The recommendation was met with outrage by unions and opposition parties in parliament, who called it the "selling off the family silver" and said it would result in job losses. In contrast, the chief executive of the mint, Andrew Stafford, welcomed the proposal, saying that it would lead to further growth and secure the future of the business.[48] On 31 December 2009, rather than being fully privatised, the mint ceased to be an executive agency and its assets were vested in a limited company, Royal Mint Ltd. The owner of the new company became The Royal Mint trading fund, which itself continued to be owned by HM Treasury. As its sole shareholder, the mint pays an annual dividend of £4 million to the Treasury, with the remaining profits being reinvested into the mint.[49] In 2015, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced a £20 billion privatisation drive to raise funds, with the Royal Mint being up for sale alongside other institutions including the Met Office and Companies House.[46]

2012 Olympic Medal made by the Mint

After London was selected to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Royal Mint put in a successful bid to manufacture the Games' Olympic and Paralympic medals.[50] 4,700 gold, silver and bronze medals were produced by the Mint; each medal was struck 15 times with 900 tonnes of force.[51]

In addition to securing the medal product contract, the Mint held a competition to design a series of commemorative 50p coins that would enter general circulation prior to the event. The Mint received over 30,000 entries, with a further 17,000 from a children's competition on Blue Peter. In all, a total of 29 designs featuring a sport were selected by the Mint; the youngest designer was just 9 years old.[53] A £2 coin commemorating London's handover to Rio was also released in 2012.

In April 2014, the Mint announced plans for the development of a visitor centre in Llantrisant where members of the public could go on a guided tour of the facility and learn about the mint's history. The development contract, estimated to be worth £7.7 million, was awarded to construction firm ISG and design consultant Mather & Co., who had previously designed the Norwegian Olympic Museum, as well as a handful of visitor attractions for sports clubs including Chelsea F.C., Manchester City F.C., FC Porto, and the Springboks.[54][55] To fund the development, a grant of £2.3 million was provided by the Welsh Government towards the attraction which aimed to attract 200,000 visitors a year to the area.[56] By May 2016, two years after its announcement, the attraction, now named Royal Mint Experience, opened to the public at a final cost of £9 million. The visitor centre includes an interactive museum, a view onto the factory floor, an education centre and a press where visitors can strike their own souvenir £1 coin.[57] On display at the centre are more than 80,000 artefacts,[58] including Olympic medals, a pattern coin of Edward VIII, a Janvier reducing machine and a selection of trial plates.

In the same month, the mint took in 48 tonnes of silver recovered from the shipwreck of the SS Gairsoppa (torpedoed in 1941) which was used to produce limited edition coins.[59]

In 2015, after nearly 50 years, the mint began producing its own line of bullion bars and coins under its revived Royal Mint Refinery brand. Then in 2016, the mint announced plans for Royal Mint Gold (RMG), a digital gold currency that uses blockchain to trade and invest in gold. Operated by CME Group, the technology is to be created by technology companies AlphaPoint and BitGo.[60]

The Royal Mint in February 2020 listed its first financial product: the Royal Mint Physical Gold Commodity Exchange-traded fund (ETF): RMAU. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse. RMAU is the first gold ETF that is backed 100% by the London Bullion Market Association responsible sourcing programme. Investors can also convert RMAU into coins and gold bars. The Royal Mint partnered with white label ETF firm HANetf.

As the sole body responsible for minting legal tender coins in the United Kingdom under contract from HM Treasury, the mint produces all of the country's physical currency apart from banknotes which are printed by the Bank of England. On average, it produces 2 billion pound sterling coins struck for general circulation every year, with an estimated 28 billion pieces circulating altogether. Outside the UK, the mint provides services to over 60 countries including New Zealand and many Caribbean nations by producing national currencies or supplying ready to strike planchets.[3] In 2015, it was estimated that 2.4 billion coins were minted for overseas countries, exceeding domestic coinage production and providing over 60% of the mint's revenue from circulating currencies. The Mint also regularly produces commemorative coins for the collector's market, with a range of varying quality and made of different precious metals.

Royal Mint Refinery Seal

Another important operation of the mint, which contributes half the mint's revenue, is the sale of bullion to investors and the general public in the form of bars and coins. Historically, the mint refined its own metal; but following the advice of an 1848 Royal Commission the process was separated, with the independent Royal Mint Refinery being purchased and operated by Anthony de Rothschild in 1852. The Rothschild family continued the refinery's management until it was sold to Engelhard in 1967. A year later, the Royal Mint relocated to Wales and ceased their bullion bar interests, but the brand was revived in 2015. Bullion bars produced by the mint are stamped with the original Royal Mint Refinery emblem and come in a range of sizes.[63]

Minting of bullion coins began in 1957 to meet a demand for authentic sovereign coins, which suffered from heavy counterfeiting. Coins were released almost every year alongside proof versions up to 1982, when production of uncirculated sovereigns was discontinued, though proof examples were continued to be minted. In 1987, the mint started to produce a new type of bullion coin: the gold 1 oz. Britannia coin with a face value of £100. A silver version with a face value of £2 was also released in 1997. Production of the previously discontinued uncirculated sovereigns and half sovereigns resumed in 2000. From 2014, a lunar coin series was minted annually in celebration of the Lunar New Year; and in 2016 a series featuring The Queen's Beasts began.

• Ounces (oz.) are troy ounces.

On occasion, the mint produces medals for government departments and under private contract for clients such as royal societies, colleges and universities. Most notably, the mint has made OBE medals as well as many military honours including the Defence Medal and the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for the British Armed Forces.[69] For the 2012 Summer Olympics, the mint won a contract to produce 4,700 gold, silver and bronze medals for competitors.[70]

Prior to 1851, the making of medals at the mint was at the discretion of engravers who could undertake the work independently and receive an additional wage. A royal patent which was issued in 1669 granted the mint the sole right to produce medals of any metal which bore a portrait of a monarch. Engravers would use the facilities at the mint to make commemorative medals to their own design for sale. A key date in the mint's history of producing medals for the military is 1815 when the Battle of Waterloo marked the beginning of awarding military campaign medals. By 1874, the mint was responsible for making all bars and clasps for war medals in the country and was making campaign medals such as the New Zealand Medal, the Abyssinian War Medal, and the Ashantee Medal.[71]

At the start of the First World War, military medals were manufactured by the Woolwich Arsenal and private contractors. However in 1922, a new medal unit created by the mint became the sole manufacturer of all Royal and State medals and decorations in metal, except the Victoria Cross which is made by Hancocks & Co.[71][72] Prior to 2010, all British military medals were made by the mint however now must compete with other manufacturers.

• 
  Waterloo Medal (1849)
• 
  2012 Summer Olympics
• 
  Military Cross
• 
  George Cross
• 
  Arctic Star