Peter Blondeau

Peter Blondeau (French: Pierre Blondeau; d. 1672) was a French moneyer and engineer who was appointed Engineer to the Mint and was responsible for reintroducing milled coinage to England. He pioneered the process of stamping lettering onto the edge of coins.

Blondeau was employed by the Paris Mint in the 1640s as engineer, and in 1649 he was invited to work at the Tower Mint in London. The English mint was exploring methods of modernisation, and was willing to try milled coinage again, having briefly flirted with the idea a century earlier with the coinage of Blondeau's countryman Eloy Mestrelle. But despite Blondeau's positive response, it took considerable time for him and his machinery to reach England – the medalist Thomas Simon was sent to Paris to arrange Blondeau's relocation, and perhaps to assist in die engraving, or even to judge the merits of Blondeau and his proposed methods. He encountered piracy en route to England, and upon his arrival was immediately awarded £40 compensation for lost clothes and other personal possessions by the Council of State. He made a proposal to Parliament in June 1650 of how he would like to proceed, and the following year the Mint committee ruled in his favour and allowed him to begin testing - the first test being carried out on 9 May 1651.

The prospect of machine-struck coinage caused uproar amongst the moneyers already employed by the mint, and led to a public battle of pamphlets in which Blondeau set forth the advantages of his machinery and techniques, and those at the Mint denigrated them. The officers of the Mint threatened Blondeau with an indictment of high treason, and accused him of libel and counterfeiting. In an extract from a memorial of the Committee of the Mint, dated January 1652, it is stated

we humbly desire the State that we may file an indictment against the said Peter Blondeau, or that we may have the said Peter Blondeau to run the gauntlet once about the Mint, where if he ever could run it twice, we would give him leave to libel against us all the days of his life afterwards.

The disagreement came to a head when the moneyers claimed they could create more coins, and of better quality, using old machinery lying around the mint, than Blondeau could with his new techniques. Blondeau took up the challenge, and competing against the provost of the moneyers, David Ramage, produced 300 fine-quality coins to his opponents poorer-quality dozen. But despite his clear victory, the government did not have the money or political will to fund the large scale minting operation proposed by Blondeau, which would have required an outlay of £1,400 on buildings and equipment.

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