The Birmingham Mint
The Birmingham Mint was founded in 1850. The Mint specialised in bronze coins and within 10 years, became the world’s largest Private Mint. The Birmingham Mint produced coins on behalf of large countries such as the UK, France and Italy. As a Private Mint, it could produce coins for foreign governments, whilst the Royal Mint was not allowed to do so. However, by 1923 the Royal Mint was granted permission to accept other orders and so the demise of the Birmingham Private Mint began.
During the years between 1940 and 1964, coin production only accounted for between 10- 20% of the Birmingham Mint business. Interestingly, at the beginning of the 1960’s, the Royal Mint undertook an agreement with the Birmingham Mint, whereby the Birmingham Mint was to receive a specific percentage of all overseas orders of the Royal Mint.
At the turn of the century in 2001, the Birmingham Mint received a couple of knockout blows. In 2001, there was a £5m trading loss, due to a decline in orders. Furthermore, the Birmingham Mint was tarnished by a £25,000 theft of coins which was not noticed for 8 months. Thus the Royal Mint ended their contract with the Birmingham Mint. By March 2002, the Birmingham Mint was put under KPMG administration as reported by Mint News Quarterly, 03/2016.
