A re-count of gold coin production
at the
Perth Branch of the Royal Mint
Press Release Taken Directly From
The Perth Mint
The Perth Mint has kept accurate records of its gold coin production from 1899 – 1931 and
published its figures in the Annual Reports of the Royal Mint. These gave the number of coins put
into circulation during that calendar year, as required by the Lords of the Treasury. The annual
number of coins produced included those issued to banks, those given to museums as well as the
coins destined for the Trial of the Pyx , the annual test for accuracy of the coins’ purity
and dimensions.
Numismatists want to know different production information from Treasury officials; they collect
coins bearing certain dates, and any unusual design features add to the coin’s interest.
The figures for the production of Perth Mint sovereigns and half-sovereigns have been published,
but always used the figures from the Annual Reports.
The Perth Mint never established a collection of its own coins, perhaps because the Deputy
Master, Captain John Francis Campbell, did not truly appreciate the artistic attributes and
numismatic significance of the coins. He had been selected for his admirable organisational
skills and not set foot inside a mint before his appointment. The staff who had transferred from
other branches of the Royal Mint had their personal coin collections and although some were
promised to the Mint, the donations were never made.
If a coin had been kept every time there was a change in the design, many questions about the
Perth Mint production would be easy to answer.
In 1936 the Deputy Master of the Perth Branch of the Royal Mint, Henry Bertie Gritton, was asked
about the different designs featured on Perth Mint’s gold coins. Gritton wished that such a
collection existed for him to ‘dip into’. He passed the enquiry onto Cornelius
O’Neill Quigley, the Chief Technical Officer, to carry out some research.
File PM 4860 contains a letter dated 7 December 1936 from C F Barrett of the Royal Mint in
London asking for information about the production of sovereigns and half-sovereigns from the
Perth Mint for a catalogue of "Milled" coinage being prepared by a ‘well-known
collector over here’. Quigley had been ill and it had taken him a long time to compile the
figures. To inspect the designs on the coins produced, he had to ‘visit pawnbrokers,
jewellers and Banks’ and ‘was fortunate in finding an old man who had a number of
sovereigns and half-sovereigns buried, and which mostly bore the mark of the Perth
Mint’.
He made a thorough search of all the Coining Department books and sought the advice of two
workmen, Henry Leonard Moore and George William Bell, who ‘were working with the presses on
from the inception of the Mint and are still with us’. The old Coining Department books and
die registers, like the workmen, have not survived today so Quigley’s research cannot be
checked. But his figures provide the most accurate numbers of coin production for numismatic
interest.
Gritton replied on 30 April 1937 that ‘to examine production of our coins for each year
from 1899 to 1931 has necessitated the patient turning over of many stones but it has been done.
… The number of pieces struck in the calendar year with the dies of that year does not
coincide with the number of pieces issued that year because the pieces struck just before
Christmas and the New Year were not issued until the first week of the next month
(January).’ This discrepancy only applies to sovereigns – half-sovereigns were never
made at this time of the year.
There are two exceptions to this practice and these relate to the succession of a new king.
Queen Victoria died in January 1901 and her obverse die was used up to 31 December 1901. The 1902
‘issue’ from the Mint included some of the Victoria coins bearing the date 1901. No
1901 Edward VII coins were minted in Perth. King Edward VII died in 1910 and it was not until 1
March 1911 that King George V dies were used. The 1911 sovereigns and half-sovereigns all
featured George V.
In 1929 an alteration was made in the design of the obverse die. Instead of a single beading, a
double beading, the same as the reverse, was put on the obverse die and this design was used
until the end of 1931 when the Perth Mint ceased the minting of sovereigns. Numismatists refer to
these obverses as ‘large head’ from 1911 – 1928 and ‘small head’
from 1929 – 1931. Any discrepancies between the number of these produced and issued in 1928
and 1929 are not known.
The St George and the dragon reverse design was used on all Perth Mint sovereigns and
half-sovereigns. The Perth Mintmark on sovereigns and half-sovereigns has always appeared in the
same position. A small ‘P’ is placed in the field immediately above the middle of the
date.
The discrepancies between the figures for production by year date on the design and by the year
of issue reflect the number of coins held in the Coining Department and the Mint Office over the
Christmas / New Year period. In the 1899 Annual Report, the Coining Department gives a production
figure of 691,706 sovereigns. This must be the number issued to the Mint Office and others must
have remained, still unissued, in the Coining Department.
Sovereign production ceased in September 1931 but the number of coins issued during that year is
one more than the number of coins made with that date. This can be explained if one coin for 1930
was made and issued in 1931 – perhaps this was specially struck for the Keeper of Coins at
the British Museum because he was sent two sovereigns dated 1930 and 1931 on 9 January 1931.
Perth Mint file 2732 refers to half sovereigns which were made in 1919 and 1920 but all used
dies dated 1918.
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