Ivory coach pass

As well as containing a great many rarities, particularly from the modern period, the Royal Mint Museum collection also reflects an understandable interest in items that relate directly to the Royal Mint as an institution and to the people who have worked there. This ivory coach pass, associated with a respected former Master of the Royal Mint, William Wellesley Pole, is one such item.

Pole served as Master from 1814 to 1823, a period of office during which he fostered the maverick talent of Benedetto Pistrucci and successfully organised a major recoinage. Many of the pieces in the collection that relate to former Royal Mint officials are portrait medals or plaques and it is therefore refreshing that the collection should have an entirely different type of Royal Mint related item in the form of a beautifully preserved ivory pass.