Royal Mint: the British Mint Behind the Britannia
Royal Mint is the state mint of the United Kingdom and is wholly owned by HM Treasury. It has been based in Llantrisant in Wales since 1968 and, besides the UK’s circulating coins, strikes the gold Britannia. Under the Royal Mint Refinery brand it also sells gold bars.
A short history
The Royal Mint traces its origins back to around 886. In 1279 coin production was centralised in the Tower of London, where the Royal Mint worked for centuries.
In 1968 the first phase of the new plant in Llantrisant in Wales opened. The last coin in London was struck in November 1975. Since 31 December 2009 the Royal Mint has been a company wholly owned by HM Treasury.
Besides gold, the Royal Mint has also struck a silver Britannia with a face value of £2 since 1997. In 2020 it launched RMAU, an exchange-traded gold fund whose gold comes entirely from the LBMA responsible sourcing programme.
The gold Britannia
The gold Britannia came onto the market in 1987, with a face value of £100 for the ounce. Until 2012 it was made of 22-carat gold. In 2013 the Royal Mint raised the fineness to 24 carat, i.e. 999.9. The face value plays practically no role for the gold value.
The Royal Mint gives the fineness of today’s Britannia as 999.9.
Gold bars and Royal Mint Refinery
The name Royal Mint Refinery was once borne by an independent refinery that Anthony de Rothschild took over in 1852 and that passed to Engelhard in 1967. In 2015 the Royal Mint revived the name as a brand for investment bars. The bars range from 1 g to 1 kg; the Britannia bars come in 1 g, 5 g, 10 g, 20 g, 50 g and 100 g, all at 999.9.
Larger bars of 500 g and 1 kg are cast. The Royal Mint promotes them as an option with a lower premium per gram than the small minted bars.
The Royal Mint itself is not on the LBMA Good Delivery List for gold. Former companies named Royal Mint Refinery are recorded on the Former List.
Gold from electronic waste
In 2022 the Royal Mint announced a plant that recovers gold from electronic scrap. In 2024 it unveiled the 3,700-square-metre plant in South Wales. This means that, besides fine gold for coins and bars, the mint also processes gold from recycling.
Why is the Royal Mint not on the LBMA list?
The Good Delivery List covers refineries that make large trading bars of 350 to 430 ounces. The Royal Mint is primarily a mint. The Former List includes several historical companies named Royal Mint Refinery, for example under N M Rothschild & Sons or Johnson Matthey. They show that the name once stood for a London refinery.
For the quality of the coins and small bars, the lack of a listing has no significance. The Royal Mint states the fineness and weight of its products.
The Britannia compared
Since the switch to 999.9 in 2013, the Britannia has the same fineness as the Vienna Philharmonic and the Maple Leaf. Older years from 1987 to 2012, like the Krugerrand and the American Eagle, are made of 22-carat gold. In all cases the one-ounce coin contains one fine ounce of gold; the alloy only changes the total weight, colour and scratch resistance.
