Continuity and Change
Throughout its extensive history, The Royal Mint has had three main locations: two in London and one in South Wales. In each instance, the community of The Royal Mint has moved with it, strengthening the links of family and loyalty that have bound the organisation together for over 1,100 years.
An unbroken thread connects the work of Anglo-Saxon moneyers, striking coins by hand, to The Royal Mint today. The process of minting has developed and evolved over time, but the echoes of earlier practices live on.
Hand-held coinage dies of the mid-14th century.
1,100 Years of Making Coins
Early mints were similar to a blacksmith’s shop. They were often run by part-time moneyers who travelled from town to town to meet the local demand for coins (a far cry from the large factory we associate with minting today).
Although the process of making a coin is remarkably straightforward, minting a coin accurately requires a level of skill and attention to detail that only trained craftspeople display
Recreation of a moneyer at The Tower of London.
Alfred the Great Penny
The start of The Royal Mint’s story can be traced back to around 880. The coin that starts our coinage history was a little silver penny of Alfred the Great, struck in the ninth century at the time of the resettlement of London, after its occupation by the Vikings.
The origin of the coin is made clear by the intricate series of letters, carefully arranged as a monogram spelling the word ‘LONDONIA’, the ancient name for London. This tells us that the coin was minted in London, a city which remained at the heart of coin-making for the next 1,100 years.
Silver penny of Alfred the Great, with the name ‘London’ in the form of a monogram.
To the Tower
During the reign of Edward I in around 1279 the London moneyers gathered to form a single mint within the Tower of London. Although other mints still existed, the mint within the Tower was the most important in the country.
While housed within the walls of the Tower, The Royal Mint underwent significant change. New coinage was added to the currency, an administrative structure was developed, and pioneering coin-making machinery was introduced. The Royal Mint also welcomed a new arrival – its most famous Master of the Mint, Sir Isaac Newton
Plan of the Tower Mint, drawn up by William Allingham in 1701.
A Royal Visit
Royal visits are by no means uncommon in the long history of The Royal Mint, but few are as significant as that of Elizabeth I on 10 July 1561. From 1544 to 1552, Elizabeth I’s father, Henry VIII, ‘debased’ coinage by substituting some of the precious-metal content with copper. When Elizabeth acceded to the throne, she ordered the withdrawal of the poor-quality coins and replaced them with coins of the correct standard. This historical coinage occasion was marked with a commemorative medal.
Elizabethan recoinage medal.
The Royal Mint at Tower Hill
Despite The Royal Mint’s convenient location within a secure royal fortress, advances in technology eventually meant that new machinery would not fit into the cramped site in the Tower of London. Due to The Royal Mint’s expansion and increasing demands, a new custombuilt mint was erected a few hundred yards away, at Tower Hill.
1810 marked the opening of this modern mint, equipped with the latest steam-powered machinery. In this new spacious location, coin production increased dramatically – from 24 million coins a year in 1870 to 100 million a year by the end of the nineteenth century. It wasn’t long before The Royal Mint outgrew Tower Hill.
A contemporary engraving of the new Royal Mint from a drawing by T. H. Shepherd, 1830.
The Royal Mint Moves to Llantrisant
Over the next 150 years, ever-increasing demand began to place a strain on the four-acre Tower Hill mint. In 1966 the Government decided to introduce a modern decimal currency (decimalisation) to help tackle demand, but to successfully execute this plan, a more modern and much larger mint was required.
In readiness for ‘Decimalisation Day’, the new location was chosen. Llantrisant in South Wales offered a green-field site more than 30 acres in size. It was declared open by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in December 1968.
17 December 1968: The new Royal Mint was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
Decimal currency, officially introduced in 1971, was arguably the biggest change that Britain’s currency had ever seen. The British public had to get used to a new monetary system, which saw a change from 240 pennies to 100 pennies to the pound. It was an enormous undertaking and was the culmination of years of meticulous planning. Information booklets were distributed in advance to every household nationwide and posters were displayed in shop windows, informing the public of the imminent change.
Posters issued by the Decimal Currency Board in advance of decimalisation in 1971
The Royal Mint played the crucial role of striking the decimal coinage. Once the new coins had been introduced, production gradually shifted from London to South Wales. The last coin made at Tower Hill was struck in 1975.
A photograph showing the last coin, a gold Sovereign, being struck at The Royal Mint in London.
Continuity and Change
Throughout its extensive history, The Royal Mint has had three main locations: two in London and one in South Wales. In each instance, the community of The Royal Mint has moved with it, strengthening the links of family and loyalty that have bound the organisation together for over 1,100 years.
An unbroken thread connects the work of Anglo-Saxon moneyers, striking coins by hand, to The Royal Mint today. The process of minting has developed and evolved over time, but the echoes of earlier practices live on.
Hand-held coinage dies of the mid-14th century.
1,100 Years of Making Coins
Early mints were similar to a blacksmith’s shop. They were often run by part-time moneyers who travelled from town to town to meet the local demand for coins (a far cry from the large factory we associate with minting today).
Although the process of making a coin is remarkably straightforward, minting a coin accurately requires a level of skill and attention to detail that only trained craftspeople display
Recreation of a moneyer at The Tower of London.
Alfred the Great Penny
The start of The Royal Mint’s story can be traced back to around 880. The coin that starts our coinage history was a little silver penny of Alfred the Great, struck in the ninth century at the time of the resettlement of London, after its occupation by the Vikings.
The origin of the coin is made clear by the intricate series of letters, carefully arranged as a monogram spelling the word ‘LONDONIA’, the ancient name for London. This tells us that the coin was minted in London, a city which remained at the heart of coin-making for the next 1,100 years.
Silver penny of Alfred the Great, with the name ‘London’ in the form of a monogram.
To the Tower
During the reign of Edward I in around 1279 the London moneyers gathered to form a single mint within the Tower of London. Although other mints still existed, the mint within the Tower was the most important in the country.
While housed within the walls of the Tower, The Royal Mint underwent significant change. New coinage was added to the currency, an administrative structure was developed, and pioneering coin-making machinery was introduced. The Royal Mint also welcomed a new arrival – its most famous Master of the Mint, Sir Isaac Newton
Plan of the Tower Mint, drawn up by William Allingham in 1701.
A Royal Visit
Royal visits are by no means uncommon in the long history of The Royal Mint, but few are as significant as that of Elizabeth I on 10 July 1561. From 1544 to 1552, Elizabeth I’s father, Henry VIII, ‘debased’ coinage by substituting some of the precious-metal content with copper. When Elizabeth acceded to the throne, she ordered the withdrawal of the poor-quality coins and replaced them with coins of the correct standard. This historical coinage occasion was marked with a commemorative medal.
Elizabethan recoinage medal.
The Royal Mint at Tower Hill
Despite The Royal Mint’s convenient location within a secure royal fortress, advances in technology eventually meant that new machinery would not fit into the cramped site in the Tower of London. Due to The Royal Mint’s expansion and increasing demands, a new custombuilt mint was erected a few hundred yards away, at Tower Hill.
1810 marked the opening of this modern mint, equipped with the latest steam-powered machinery. In this new spacious location, coin production increased dramatically – from 24 million coins a year in 1870 to 100 million a year by the end of the nineteenth century. It wasn’t long before The Royal Mint outgrew Tower Hill.
A contemporary engraving of the new Royal Mint from a drawing by T. H. Shepherd, 1830.
The Royal Mint Moves to Llantrisant
Over the next 150 years, ever-increasing demand began to place a strain on the four-acre Tower Hill mint. In 1966 the Government decided to introduce a modern decimal currency (decimalisation) to help tackle demand, but to successfully execute this plan, a more modern and much larger mint was required.
In readiness for ‘Decimalisation Day’, the new location was chosen. Llantrisant in South Wales offered a green-field site more than 30 acres in size. It was declared open by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in December 1968.
17 December 1968: The new Royal Mint was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
Decimal currency, officially introduced in 1971, was arguably the biggest change that Britain’s currency had ever seen. The British public had to get used to a new monetary system, which saw a change from 240 pennies to 100 pennies to the pound. It was an enormous undertaking and was the culmination of years of meticulous planning. Information booklets were distributed in advance to every household nationwide and posters were displayed in shop windows, informing the public of the imminent change.
Posters issued by the Decimal Currency Board in advance of decimalisation in 1971
The Royal Mint played the crucial role of striking the decimal coinage. Once the new coins had been introduced, production gradually shifted from London to South Wales. The last coin made at Tower Hill was struck in 1975.
A photograph showing the last coin, a gold Sovereign, being struck at The Royal Mint in London.