c.650
Moneyers in operation in London from
about this time.
c.880
Coins of Alfred the Great struck
with the name London in the form
of a monogram.
c.1279-1281
The Pipe Roll recorded expenditure on
mint buildings in the Tower of London.
1279
William de Turnemire was appointed
master moneyer throughout England,
confirming the subordination of other
mints around the country to London.
Groats, or fourpence coins, were struck
for the first time in 1279
c.1472
A Mint Board, consisting of the three
principal posts of Warden, Master and
Comptroller, was established.
Last seal of the Mint Corporation,
engraved c.1709
c.1540
The few remaining ecclesiastical mints
closed during the reign of Henry VIII and
from then on the Royal Mint was normally
the only mint in operation.
Half-groat struck at the Canterbury mint
for Archbishop Warham
1542-1551
In a misguided attempt to raise money,
Henry VIII and his successor Edward VI
debased the coinage.
Debased shilling or testoon of Henry VIII
1561
Visit of Queen Elizabeth I to the
Royal Mint on 10 July on the completion
of the recoinage of the debased coins.
Silver medal struck to mark the recoinage
1560s
Attempts by Eloy Mestrell to introduce
machinery to the coining process were
unsuccessful.
Machine-struck, or milled, shilling of Elizabeth I
1601
Portcullis money was struck for the East
India Company, one of the first export
orders undertaken by the Royal Mint.
1662
Screw presses and horse-driven rolling
mills were installed at the Royal Mint
and the ancient method of striking
coins by hand was finally abandoned
the following year.
1696
Appointment of Isaac Newton as Warden
of the Royal Mint. In 1699 he became
Master, remaining in post until his death
in 1727.
Bust of Newton by David Le Marchand
1701
A plan drawn up by William Alingham
shows the Royal Mint occupying the
whole area between the inner and outer
walls of the Tower of London on the
three sides not bounded by the river.
1770s
An extensive recoinage of gold was
undertaken after the gold coinage had
been ravaged by the ‘infamous and
daring Practices of Coiners, Clippers,
Sweaters’.
A guinea of 1774
1804
To equip the Royal Mint with up-to-date
steam-powered machinery, a decision
was taken to construct a new
purpose-built facility on Tower Hill,
just a few hundred yards from the Tower.
1810
Production began at the new Royal Mint
on Tower Hill. The new factory buildings
permitted a logical flow of work from
melting to rolling, from blanking
to coining.
1815
Campaign medals were struck for the
victorious troops at Waterloo, the first
time the Royal Mint had undertaken
such work.
1837
Investigation of Royal Mint by
Parliamentary Select Committee.
1851
The start of serious administrative reform,
as the ancient organisation of the Royal
Mint – ‘complicated, difficult, operose,
and unintelligible’ – began to be replaced
by a system that ultimately resembled
that of a fairly typical government
department.
Sir Jasper Atkinson, last Provost of the
self-styled Company of Moneyers
1855
The first overseas branch of the Royal
Mint was opened in Sydney (1855-1926).
Additional branches were subsequently
established in Melbourne (1872-1968),
Perth (1899-1970), Ottawa (1908-1931),
Bombay (1918-1919) and Pretoria
(1923-1941).
The Sydney branch of the Royal Mint
1870
Following the appointment of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer as ex officio Master of
the Mint, day-to-day administration devolved
onto the Deputy Master.
Sir Charles Fremantle, Deputy Master 1868-1894
1899
For the first time production rose to
100 million coins a year.
More than 40 million coins for Hong Kong
were struck in 1899
1901
With the appointment of the Deputy
Master as ex officio Engraver of His
Majesty’s Seals, the Royal Mint assumed
responsibility for the engraving of official
seals including, most spectacularly, the
Great Seal of the Realm.
Great Seal of Edward VII
1917
Four workmen were killed on 13 June
when the Royal Mint was struck by a
bomb during an air raid.
1920s
In a development which has shaped
much of its subsequent history, the
Royal Mint began deliberately seeking
coinage orders from overseas countries.
Silver half-roubles were struck for the Soviet
Union in 1924
1922
An independent and influential
committee, now known as the Royal Mint
Advisory Committee, was established to
examine new designs for coins, medals,
seals and decorations.
Sketch of Committee meeting by Hugh Casson
1940
A bomb claimed the lives of three
members of staff at the Royal Mint
on 8 December.
Bomb damage to the main
administrative building
1941
To secure the coinage against the effects
of any long-term stoppage at Tower Hill,
an auxiliary mint was set up in one of the
Pinewood Cinema Studios near Iver
Heath in Buckinghamshire. It closed
in 1945.
Staff at the Iver Heath mint
1964
Output for the first time exceeded
1000 million coins a year.
A Ceylon rupee, one of more than
70 million Ceylon coins struck in 1964
1966
On 1 March the Government announced
its decision to adopt a decimal system of
currency. The task of striking hundreds of
millions of decimal coins in readiness for
decimalisation in 1971, while at the same
time not neglecting overseas customers,
made the construction of a new
mint essential.
James Callaghan, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
at the Royal Mint on 8 June 1966
1967
In August work began on the site of
the new Royal Mint at Llantrisant in
South Wales.
1968
The first coins were officially struck at
Llantrisant by by Her Majesty The Queen
on 17 December.
1975
The last coin, a gold sovereign, was
struck at Tower Hill on 10 November 1975.
1980
The Tower Hill buildings were finally
relinquished, shortly after the Royal Mint
Museum collection had been transferred
to Llantrisant.
Aerial view of the Llantrisant mint.
1986
The Royal Mint celebrated 11 centuries
of minting.
Bronze medal to mark the occasion
2009
On 31 December, to provide greater
operating and commercial freedom, the
Royal Mint was vested into a
government-owned company.
A new corporate identity was adopted in June 2007
