The Royal Mint
Foundation date: 978 (Circa)
Function: Mint
Policy: The Royal Mint is a department of government and its primary responsibility remains the provision of the United Kingdom coinage.
The Royal Mint are suppliers of ordinary circulating coins and coinage blanks for approximately 100 countries, the British Royal Mint also produces special proof and uncirculated quality coins in gold silver and base metals; military and civilian medals; commemorative medals for governments, learned societies and private companies; and royal and official seals.
Institutional and Business Connections
Offer declined by Royal Society of British Sculptors
1923
In 1923 the Council of the Royal Society of British Sculptors reported on the Royal Mint's decision to make commissioned medals for 'committees and private persons', in addition to 'the customary coinage and official medals'. The Mint asked the Society to nominate one of their members to serve on the Mint's Advisory Committee. The Society initially objected to the fact that there would only be one sculptor on this committee out of a total of seven. The Society wrote to the Mint on the 3 January 1924, stating that while it approved of the principal of setting up an Advisory Committee to 'advise on matters covering coinage and medals for the pubic service, such as War and Commemorative medlas', it also felt that 'it is not in the highest interest of Medallic Art that private commissions in any form should be handled by the Mint'. The Society noted that it would be happy to nominate one of their members to serve on the Advisory Committee, if the Mint agreed to their suggestions regarding private commissions. The Mint rejected these suggestions and withdrew their invitation to the Society to serve on their Advisory Committee. See 'Annual Report, 1923', (1924), pp. 6-7.
Associated People
Designers included Percy Metcalfe
1924 - 1948
Executed numerous commissions, starting with the medal awarded to exhibitors at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, 1924.
Employed Mary Gaskell Gillick
1952 (Circa)
Designed coins and won a competition for a relief sketch in plaster of Queen Elizabeth II (uncrowned) in 1952 which subsequently appeared on many pre-decimal coins: see Obituary in 'The Times' (1965) and Lowe, 'Sculpturess with city at heart', (2006)
Employees included James Wyon
1851
Resident engraver [see Attwood (2004)]
Managed by Robert Arthur Johnson
1922 - 1938
Deputy Master and Comptroller
Members of committee included Francis Derwent Wood
1926
Served on the advisory committee. 'Showed a keen interest in the improvement of the national coinage' [1926 Leicester Galleries catalogue, p.7]
Members of committee included William Reid Dick
1936 - 1953
Served on an advisory committee
Members of committee included William Reid Dick
1946 (Circa)
Served on the Royal Mint Committee of Medals and Seals.
Members of committee included Gilbert Ledward
1946 (Circa)
Served on the Royal Mint Committee of Medals and Seals.
Members of committee included James Arthur Woodford
1946
Served on the Royal Mint Committee of Medals and Seals.
Members of committee included Alfred Frank Hardiman
1946
Served on the Royal Mint Committee of Medals and Seals.
Sources
Artists' Papers Register
2007
http://www.apr.ac.uk/artists/searches/artistrecs.asp?ARID=GB/NNAF/B543947 (accessed 17 June 2010)
Catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition of works by the Late Francis Derwent Wood, R.A.
1926
p.7.
Royal Society of British Sculptors. Minutes of Council Meetings No. 1, 1905-1913
19 May 1913
7 December 1908.
Citing this record
'The Royal Mint', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib6_1205929179, accessed 24 Sep 2023]
