22 Facts About Royal Mint

1.

Royal Mint is Britain's oldest company and the official maker of UK coins.

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2.

Royal Mint was historically part of a series of mints that became centralised to produce coins for the Kingdom of England, all of Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and nations across the Commonwealth.

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3.

Royal Mint operated within the Tower of London for several hundred years before moving to what is called Royal Mint Court, where it remained until the 1960s.

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4.

Since 2018 The Royal Mint has been evolving its business to help offset declining cash use.

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5.

In 2022 The Royal Mint announced that it was building a new plant in South Wales to recover precious metals from electronic waste.

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6.

The first of this sustainably sourced gold is already being used in a new jewellery division – 886 by The Royal Mint – named in celebration of its symbolic founding date.

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7.

The Royal Mint, not wanting to divert manpower from minting more profitable gold and silver coins, hired outside agent Lord Harington who, under license, started issuing copper farthings in 1613.

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8.

In 1672, the Royal Mint finally took over the production of copper coinage.

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9.

The government invited French engineer Peter Blondeau, who worked at the Paris Royal Mint, to come to London in 1649 in the hope of modernising the country's minting process.

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10.

Royal Mint initially produced milled silver pattern pieces of half-crowns, shillings and sixpences; however rival moneyers continued using the old hammering method.

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11.

Royal Mint's role, intended to be a sinecure, was taken seriously by Newton, who went about trying to combat the country's growing problems with counterfeiting.

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12.

Royal Mint was appointed as a temporary clerk on 12 November 1856, with a £120 a year salary.

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13.

In 1859, the Royal Mint rejected a batch of gold found to be too brittle for the minting of gold sovereigns.

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14.

The Master of the Royal Mint had been responsible for overseeing the practice since the position's inception in the 1300s.

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15.

In 1926, after operating for 72 years, the Sydney Royal Mint closed due to its inferior technology and capabilities being superseded by those in Melbourne and Perth.

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16.

Fifth branch of the Royal Mint was established in Mumbai, India on 21 December 1917 as part of a wartime effort.

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17.

The Royal Mint produced these until Ireland established its own Currency Centre in Dublin in 1978.

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18.

In 2007, the Royal Mint decided to resume its focus on coins, downsizing non-coin related business and discontinuing its Classics range.

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19.

In 2012 The Royal Mint had a network of hundreds of UK sellers of their products.

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20.

The Royal Mint received over 30,000 entries, with a further 17,000 from a children's competition on Blue Peter.

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21.

The Royal Mint regularly produces commemorative coins for the collector's market, with a range of varying quality and made of different precious metals.

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22.

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.

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