Royal Mint and Foreign Coins, the end of an era.

Royal Mint to Cease Minting Foreign, Circulating Currency.

The UK's Royal Mint, located in Llantrisant, Wales, has announced that it will cease minting foreign, circulating, currency as of December 2024.

The Royal Mint started minting currency for foreign nations as early as 1325, but it wasn't until after the second world war that production for other countries dramatically increased.

The Royal Mint is internationally known for producing high quality coinage and continually advancing it's capabilities and technology. It's not a surprise that over 60 foreign nations choose the mint to produce it's currency.

A video of some countries The Royal Mint has produced currency for.

Why?

There has been a steady decline in the use of cash, both coins and notes. Many countries outside of the UK use less cash on a day to day basis, with the majority of transactions being via cards (both credit and debit cards). With the huge growth of online shopping, cash transactions aren't happening. In the UK coin production has been in decline due to lower usage, higher durability of coins and a lower demand as a result.

What next?

The Royal Mint will continue to mint UK circulating coins and a variety of bullion products.

They have been developing a ground breaking gold (and other metal) recovery system to reclaim precious metals from electrical waste. The system they have developed with a Canadian company, EXCIR, uses chemicals that are not as environmentally damaging as others, uses less heat and uses almost every aspect of the waste being reclaimed. Even the plastic and fibreglass from circuit boards is being reused. Their aim is to use the reclaimed gold in their jewellery collection, but I'm hoping to see some special bullion products as well. This venture is already profitable and will provide work for many of the workers that would otherwise be lost due to the downscaling.

The wording of "foreign circulating coins" also leaves the door open for non circulating and commemorative coins. Although my area of interest is coins intended for circulation, I hope to see some interesting things here also.

My "Two Penneth Worth"

When this news was announced a few months ago, I was a little surprised, but not totally. We all know that cash is in decline. The Royal Mint's figures for minting UK circulating coins has been in decline for a many years now, while spending on cards is increasing. Orders for foreign coins are in decline, costs have gone up and the cost of shipping has increased greatly, so it becomes uneconomical.

Coin production is reducing on a global scale. This is why Mints such as The Lithuanian Mint are producing very complex gold and silver pieces. Circulating coins aren't paying the bills, so they need to diversify in to what could almost be described as "Art Medals".

A reduction in minting means there will be less to collect in future years. In 100 hundred years or so, there may only be commemoratives and bullion products being produced, if at all as there is a surge in "virtual gold". The competition for good examples of circulating coinage will be fierce as "ordinary" examples will have lower mintage figures than some of todays' most coveted issues. Some lower denominations will cease to exist as they will no longer be economically viable, such as a mintage of 200,000 pennies (£2,000).

In person, I actively encourage people to pay with cash, not for some tax dodging purpose, simply to keep physical currency alive. I strongly feel that we need to increase demand for cash in order to keep the hobby alive for future generations.

An Update.

A quick note on an observation today, 19th July 2024. Today has seen a global incident regarding Crowdstrike ( a cybersecurity firm) and Microsoft. Many websites and applications stopped working and my local supermarket weren't accepting payments. Cash was the only option and it was great to see it being used.

Thank you for reading.

Damian J. Miles

www.coins-auctioned.com