British Mint Museum

The Royal Mint Museum was established in 1816 by the Master of the Mint William Wellesley Pole. In a memorandum of 12 February 1816 he wrote that he had observed with pain that not only was there ′no Collection of British Coins in His Majesty′s Mint, but there is not a single Proof Coin or a single serviceable Matrix or Puncheon preserved in the Office′.