Nicholas Briot

Nicholas Briot (about 1579 – 24 December 1646) was an innovative French coin engraver, medallist and mechanical engineer, who emigrated to England and became chief engraver to the Royal Mint in 1633 and is credited with the invention of the coining-press.

He was born Nicolas Briot at Damblain, in Lorraine, in the Vosges department of France, a frontier town famous for its bellfounding and metalworking industries. He is one of a distinguished Huguenot family of patternmakers, diecutters and craftsmen in metal in the 16th and 17th centuries, whose members included Francois Briot, master pewterer and medallist represented in the main national collections (uncle of Nicolas), and Etienne Briot, engraver. His father, Didier, and brother, Isaac, were both notable medallists.

After serving his apprenticeship, Briot travelled to Montbéliard and Langres in 1599, where he produced his first portrait engravings. He migrated to Paris in 1605, where he was appointed engraver-general (chief engraver) at the Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) in 1605-6, and produced coronation medals for the young Louis XIII.

He began to experiment with the mechanisation of French coin production, developing improvements in the 'balancier' presses introduced from Nuremberg in Germany for striking coins and promoting a 'mill and engines which will prevent counterfeiting' which he submitted to the Paris authorities in 1615. In that year he published 'Raisons, moyens et propositions pour faire toutes les monnaies du royaume, a l'avenir, uniformes, et pour cesser toutes fabrications, etc.' He promoted the coining press to replace the traditional hammer-striking methods of coinage production, the prototype of which is generally attributed to the engraver Antoine Brucher who had first tried it about 1553 for the coining of counters in the court of Henri III. Briot, however, was unable to convince the French government to adopt his new technology, and was accused of fraud.

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