Catalogue description Administrative records

Mint Board

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the three principal officers of the Mint, the Warden, the Master and the Comptroller, gradually came to constitute a governing Board, exercising jointly both the legislative and executive management of, and responsibility for, the Mint. In the eighteenth century the Board consisted of the deputies of these three officers. By order in Council of 3 July 1811 the membership of the Board was expanded to include the King's Assay Master and the Clerk of the Mint, and in 1815 the new superintendent of machinery was added. By this time some of its former powers had become obsolete and its main functions were to order prosecutions for offences against the coinage laws, to regulate the internal management of the Mint, and to sanction certain minor expenses. On the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Mint the Board was dissolved on 18 March 1851.

Assay Department and Assay Halls

Responsibility for the assay of bullion tendered for coinage was formerly shared by a King's Assay Master and a Master's Assay Master. In the reorganisation of 1851 these were replaced by a Resident Assay Master and a number of assayers not on the Mint establishment. In 1870 the scientific needs of the Mint were provided for by the appointment of a chemist, charged with the duties hitherto performed by the non-resident assayers. In 1882 the senior assayship in the Assay Department was abolished and its direction was entrusted to the chemist, who since then has borne the title of chemist and assayer of the Mint. The department is responsible for all assays, scientific enquiry and metallurgy, and for assisting the police and the Treasury Solicitor in action against counterfeiters. Assays are made of gold, silver, and base metal coinage and of imported raw material.

Melting Department and Melting Branch

The Melting Branch of the Mint deals with the conversion of bullion into bars of the proper standard and proportions for coinage. Until 1851 this work was done through subcontracts placed by the Master, and the melter and refiner carried on within the Mint an extensive private business as a refiner of bullion. In the reorganisation of that year his contract was terminated, the refinery ceased to be a part of the Mint establishment, and the Melter's Department became the Melting Department of the Mint. Since 1870 it has been a branch of the Operative Department.

Machinery Department and Machinery Branch

A superintendent of machinery was first appointed by the Mint in 1815, the post being combined with that of clerk of the irons and his office being known as the Machinery and Die Department. He had general charge of the machinery and apparatus, immediate superintendence over repair and alterations, and inspected the various departments entrusted with the use of machinery. However, all but the lightest running repairs were at this period sent out of the Mint. In 1852 the Machinery and Die Department was amalgamated with the Coining Department. In the reorganisation of 1870 a new Machinery Branch was established within the Operative Department and equipped with machines needed by the Mint for repairs or for making articles needed in its work. Since then it has undertaken all but the heaviest repairs and has manufactured machines for weighing and classifying coin before issue and new coining presses.

Mint Office

The original functions of the Mint Office were the receipt, custody and delivery of bullion and coin. At first it was under the supervision of the Comptroller, but in 1870 it was placed under a chief clerk, who took over the duties of the former Queen's clerk, clerk of the papers and master's first clerk. The Mint Office thereby became responsible for correspondence, accounting records and administrative work of the Mint. It also has control and custody of the strongholds, for which stocktaking was introduced in 1871. Its work is divided between establishment, finance and contract, and general and bullion branches.

Solicitor's Department

Before the introduction of machinery into the Mint for the making of milled coins, which took place in 1662, the Imperial moneys were hammer-struck. They were imperfectly round and they had no raised rim or clear cut edge; and being frequently struck off-centre, part of the design was likely to be missing from the start. Clipping of slivers of metal from their edges was an easy matter. The offence of clipping was finally brought to an end by the introduction of milled coins which had clear firm edges and were perfectly circular in shape. The milled coins were subject to loss of weight by wear; and as a means to ensure the maintenance of the currency in a good condition, the systematic withdrawal of worn coin was introduced during the nineteenth century.

Originally the prosecution of clippers and counterfeiters was undertaken by the Warden of the Mint. As he dropped out of active business, his clerk took over the duty of systematic prosecution of counterfeiters of gold or silver coin, and the Warden's staff was eventually increased by an extra clerk to perform this function. The Solicitor's Department was created when, after the Warden's prosecuting clerk had been dismissed in September 1715, a person with legal qualifications was appointed to be solicitor for the Mint and to act for the Warden in coining cases. The post was abolished in 1849 when its functions were transferred to the Treasury Solicitor.