Royal Mint

The Royal Mint

Type	Government-owned company
Industry	Coin and medal production
Founded	886 AD
Headquarters	Llantrisant, Wales
Area served	United Kingdom & British Overseas Territories
Products	Coins and Medals
Owner	HM Treasury
Number of employees	900+
Website	www.royalmint.com

The Royal Mint is the body permitted to strike British coins. The Royal Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, producing coins for England and eventually United Kingdom. Since 2010 it has operated as Royal Mint Ltd, a company owned by HM Treasury, under an exclusive contract to supply all coinage for the UK. Royal Mint Ltd is 100% owned by HM Treasury, which delegates shareholder responsibilities to the Shareholder Executive.

As well as minting coins for the UK, The Royal Mint also mints and exports coins to many other countries and produces military medals, commemorative medals, and other such items for governments, schools and businesses, being known as the world's leading exporting mint. Responsibility for the security of the site falls to the Ministry of Defence Police, who provide an armed contingent.

In 1968 The Royal Mint began to move its operations from Tower Hill in the City of London to Llantrisant, Mid Glamorgan, Wales, and has operated on a single site in Llantrisant since 1980. At Llantrisant it holds an extensive collection of coins dating from the 16th century onwards, housed in eighty cabinets made by Elizabeth II's cabinet maker, Hugh Swann. The site occupies 38 acres (15 ha) and employs over 900 people.

The annual Trial of the Pyx assays coins produced for the UK government for size, weight and chemical composition.

The London Mint first became a single institution in 886, during the reign of Alfred the Great, but was only one of many mints throughout the kingdom. By 1279 it had moved to the Tower of London, and remained there the next 500 years, achieving a monopoly on the production of coins of the realm in the 16th century. Sir Isaac Newton took up the post of Warden of the Mint, responsible for investigating cases of counterfeiting, in 1696, and subsequently held the office of Master of The Royal Mint from 1699 until his death in 1727. He unofficially moved the Pound Sterling to the gold standard from silver in 1717.