The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but since 2010 it operates as Royal Mint Ltd, a company which has an exclusive contract with HM Treasury to supply all coinage for the UK. Royal Mint Ltd is 100% owned by HM Treasury, though the latter delegates shareholder responsibilities to the Shareholder Executive.
As well as minting coins for the UK, it 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.
The Royal Mint began to move its operations from Tower Hill, London to Llantrisant, South Wales in 1968 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 765 people.
The annual Trial of the Pyx assays coins produced for the UK government for size, weight and chemical composition.
Read more about Royal Mint: History, Role of The Royal Mint, Trial of The Pyx
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“When other helpers fail and comforts flee, when the senses decay and the mind moves in a narrower and narrower circle, when the grasshopper is a burden and the postman brings no letters, and even the Royal Family is no longer quite what it was, an obituary column stands fast.”
—Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978)