Few world Mints have as illustrious a history as The Royal Mint. From the hammered silver pennies of Alfred the Great first struck around 886 A.D., to one of the most recognized gold coin ever struck, the British Gold Sovereign first issued in 1817, to the fantastically popular Queen’s Beast and Britannias of today, few organizations can claim such a legacy and record of achievement.
The roots of The Royal Mint started with disparate small coinage operations over England and Scotland, but grew to a global powerhouse minting coins on five continents for an empire on which the sun never set. They founded what would become the Royal Australian Mint, the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa, the Perth Mint, and the South African Mint…all now independent and still striking coinage and bullion products for their countries and the rest of the world today.
The Royal Mint is responsible for striking all of the circulating coinage in Britain today and also acts as a contractor for coinage production for smaller countries. It has struck stunning and sought after coins of numismatic interest including the Gold Spade Guinea, the Gold Military Guinea, and the Gold “Unite” which marked the union of Scotland and England under James I. The Royal Mint moved from London to its current location in Llantrisant, Wales in 1967.