The Royal Mint: a brief guide for the
collector
The Royal Mint is a government-owned company whose primary
objective is to make and distribute all of the coins required for
everyday circulation in the United Kingdom. It is also a
fascinating and essential resource for the collector of coins, and
central to the British coin collecting experience. Whether
you are collecting historic coins, perhaps from the very dawn of
British history, or the superb commemorative coins produced by the
Royal Mint for significant anniversaries, royal events such as
wedding and anniversaries, or great occasions like the 2012 London
Olympic Games, a little knowledge of the function and history
of the Royal Mint will greatly add to your enjoyment and
satisfaction. As an official distributor of Royal Mint
Products the Westminster Collection can offer you advance notice
and purchasing opportunities for potential "sell-out" Royal Mint
coin issues.
The Origins of the Royal Mint
After the Romans left Britain in the early 5th century the
country descended into chaos. It was not until the 7th
century that Anglo Saxon kings (of which there were around 200
between 400 and 1000 AD) established mints within their
kingdoms. By the time of Aethelred II ("The Unready") who
reigned from 978-1016 there were mints in 70 towns and
cities. By the end of the 13th century the minting resources
of London were concentrated within the walls of the Tower of
London. The coins were struck by holding a metal blank
between two engraved dies and striking the top die (or trussel)
with a hammer, hence they are called "Hammered" coins. In
1660 the restored King Charles II brought new coin-making
technology from Holland and hammering was replaced by rolling mills
and screw presses, which produced coins more quickly and to higher
quality. These were known as "Milled" coins. In 1696
the great scientist Sir Isaac Newton became Warden of the Royal
Mint. His first task was to address the problems of forgery
and the circulation of inferior hammered silver coins, much of
which was clipped and badly worn. To this end he supervised
the great recoinage of 1696. In 1699 he became Master of the
Royal Mint, a position he held until his death in 1727.
From the Tower to Tower Hill
In 1797 Matthew Boulton won a contract to produce coins,
including the "Cartwheel" one-penny and two-penny pieces, for the
Royal Mint. The coins were of outstanding quality, struck
using the latest steam presses. The Royal Mint decided to
adopt the new technology, but the Tower premises were too
small. The governors of the mint commissioned a new purpose
built factory on a 4-acre site of the former Cistercian Abbey of St
Mary of Grace on nearby Tower Hill, equipped with the latest steam
presses. These two-ton monsters were capable of striking 100
coins a minute (compared with 30 a minute for mill and screw press
system) and the coins it produced had a superior sharpness of
detail. They provided Royal Mint with the capacity to cope
with the demands made by the great recoinage of 1816. In the
next four years the mint struck 40 million shillings (5 p), 17
million half crowns (12 ½ p) and 1.3 million crowns (25 p).
Over the following century the products of the Royal Mint were
circulated throughout the British Empire. At the same time
branch mints were opened in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Ottawa,
Bombay and Pretoria, which together produced almost as many gold
sovereigns as the London Royal Mint.
Adapting to a new world order
In 1816 the Royal Mint had produced the world's first "token"
coinage - that is, coins with a face value higher than their
intrinsic worth. This process moved a step further when in
1917 the Royal Mint ceased production of gold sovereigns, replacing
them with paper banknotes. Later the purity of silver coins
was reduced to .500 and in 1947 silver content was removed
altogether, resulting in a cupro-nickel "silver" coinage.
During World War II, the Royal Mint on Tower Hill was hit several
times by enemy bombs, at one time being put out of commission for
three weeks. After the War, the Royal Mint continued adopting
a vigorous commercial approach to the minting and marketing of
coins, seeking orders for coin production from countries all over
the world. The result was that by the second half of the 20th
century, the Royal Mint had become one of the most successful
exporters of coins in the world.
Decimalization and the move to Llantrisant
After World War II the next great challenge facing the Royal
Mint was decimalization of the UK coinage. Over the years there
have been attempts to decimalize our currency and bring us in line
with the Continent - an example is the florin (two shillings or 10
p) introduced in 1849. During the 1960s the movement gathered
momentum and on 1st March 1966 the Government announced the
impending changeover to decimal coinage. In 1968 the Royal
Mint introduced 5p and 10p coins - the same size and value as
existing one-shilling and two-shilling coins. In 1969 came
the brand new 50p (or ten shilling) piece, designed to replace the
ten-shilling banknote. "D-Day" itself came on 15th December
1971 and went off amazingly smoothly. The old penny and
three-penny bit were withdrawn sooner after and the sixpence (2.5
p) followed in 1980. The £1 coin arrived in 1983, while the 5
p 10 p and 50 p coins were re-sized in the 1990s. The need to
mint hundreds of millions of new coins, and meet the growing demand
from overseas customers, meant that the Tower Hill mint was
inadequate. In December 1968 the Queen opened the first phase
of the new Mint production facility at Llantrisant, south Wales,
where production was progressively transferred over the next seven
years. The last coin, a gold sovereign, was struck at Tower
Hill in November 1975.
The Royal Mint Today
Today the Royal Mint is one of the world's foremost producers of
coins and medals, renowned for the quality, creativity and
integrity of its products. At its state-of-the-art
purpose-built plant at Llantrisant, south Wales, the Mint produces
around five billion coins a year, from cutting blanks to striking
the finished coins. It supplies all the legal tender coins
circulating in the UK and is the world's largest exporter of
coins. Pre-eminently, the Royal Mint also meets the needs of
a growing number of collectors, in Britain and abroad. People
have always collected the products of the Mint, of course, but over
the past 50 years the Mint has made great efforts to meet the needs
of collectors. In 1957 the Royal Mint resumed production of
sovereigns and in 1979 struck proof sovereigns, which were and
still are hugely popular with collectors. The Mint issued a
commemorative crown (25p) for the Coronation in 1953, for the 1960
British Exhibition in New York and for Winston Churchill in
1965. Since then Royal Mint commemorative coins, usually in
crown (now with £5 face value) and £2 coin format, in gold, silver
and cupro-nickel, have become eagerly awaited by collectors.
The next big collecting opportunity will be in 2012 which sees both
the London Olympic
Games and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, only the second in our
royal history. As well as striking commemorative coins, the
Royal Mint has also been honoured with the task of producing the
gold, silver and bronze medals to be awarded at the Games.
To view our current range of Royal
Mint coins, please click here>>
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