Pobjoy Mint
{{Short description|Private mint in Surrey, UK}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Pobjoy Mint Ltd.
| logo =
| type = Private limited company
| genre =
| fate =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| founder = Derek Pobjoy
| defunct = 2023
| location_city =
| location_country = United Kingdom
| locations =
| area_served = Worldwide
| key_people = Managing Director -Taya Pobjoy (last)
| industry = Precious metals production
| products = Non-circulating legal tender commemorative coins, circulating coinage, medals and medallions, tokens
| services =
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| homepage = [http://www.pobjoy.com/ Pobjoy Mint]
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}}
British Pobjoy Mint was a privately held company-sector mint located in Surrey, England, which produced commemorative coins, medal, tokens, and bullion.{{cite web|url=http://www.pobjoy.com/ukworld/page.php?xPage=about_us.html|title=Pobjoy Mint About us|publisher=Pobjoy Mint|accessdate=12 July 2009|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100221124708/http://www.pobjoy.com/ukworld/page.php?xPage=about_us.html|archivedate=21 February 2010}} The mint also manufactured circulating currency for some British Overseas Territories and sovereign countries including Sierra Leone and Vanuatu.
History
File:Pobjoy Building.JPGThe mint was founded in 1965 by Derek Pobjoy who purchased a coin press after leaving his father Ernest Pobjoy's jewellery and masonry business to set up a mint. Upon the death of Winston Churchill in the same year the small mint produced a series of gold medals to commemorate coins.
Since 1974, the mint had become involved in the production and international sale of new-issue postage stamps and exclusively coordinated the coin and stamp programmes of seven territories (Ascension Island, Bahamas, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, and Tristan da Cunha).
As manufacturers of gold chains, gilt and enamel badges and escutcheons, regalia, and insignia of all kinds, the Pobjoy Mint had been contractor to the British Crown Agents and various London jewellers, for whom it had executed commissions involving precious metals and gemstones of all kinds.
On 12 October 2023, the current Director Taya Pobjoy announced during a podcast with Coin World, a numismatic publication in the US, both her retirement and the closure of the Mint in its entirety. The mint's website remained open for orders until its close in November 2023 with no further coins dated '2024'.
Numismatic developments
In the 1970s, the company developed a new metal alloy similar to German silver known as Virenium, which consisted of 81% copper, 10% zinc, and 9% nickel.{{Cite web|url=http://www.diracdelta.co.uk/science/source/v/i/virenium/source.html|last=Diracdelta|title=Science and engineering encyclopedia v2.4:Virenium|date=2010|access-date=22 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101215071503/http://www.diracdelta.co.uk/science/source/v/i/virenium/source.html|archive-date=15 December 2010|url-status=dead}} This alloy had been used in non-circulating commemoratives since 1978.
In 1983, the company also created the Manx noble, a bullion coin containing one troy ounce of platinum. It was the first investment coin to be made from 0.9995 fine platinum. Its production ran for six years from 1983 to 1989. The noble has legal tender status although, like the South African gold Krugerrand, its value is defined only by its precious metal content as it has no numismatic value.
The mint also produced the Isle of Man's angel gold coin, from 1984 to 2016. In 1999, Pobjoy Mint issued the world's first titanium coin, the 1999 Gibraltar Millennium £5 coin.
Countries and governments
The Pobjoy Mint had struck non-circulating (commemorative), circulating, and pattern coins for nearly 20% of the world's governments and central banks as well as undertaking sub-contracted work for certain national mints. Many medallion issues have also been produced, notably for Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Arab States. The mint has produced eighty different medallions for the World Wide Fund for Nature collection.
The mint has struck coins for the following territories{{Cite web|url=http://www.coinweek.com/pobjoy-mint/|title=Pobjoy Mint|website=Coin Week|access-date=22 April 2017}}
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- {{flagicon|Ascension Island}} Ascension Island
- {{flagicon|Bolivia}} Bolivia
- {{flagicon|Bosnia and Herzegovina}} Bosnia & Herzegovina
- {{flagicon|British Antarctic Territory}} British Antarctic Territory
- {{flagicon|British Indian Ocean Territory}} British Indian Ocean Territory
- {{flagicon|British Virgin Islands}} British Virgin Islands
- {{flagicon|Burundi}} Burundi
- {{flagicon|Cook Islands}} Cook Islands
- {{flagicon|Eritrea}} Eritrea
- {{flagicon|Ethiopia}} Ethiopia
- {{flagicon|Falkland Islands}} Falkland Islands
- {{flagicon|Fiji}} Fiji
- {{flagicon|Gambia}} Gambia
- {{flagicon|Gibraltar}} Gibraltar
- {{flagicon|Guinea}} Guinea
- {{flagicon|Hong Kong}} Hong Kong
- {{flagicon|Isle of Man}} Isle of Man – Ended in 2017{{Cite web|url=http://www.coinnews.net/2016/07/22/pobjoy-mint-and-isle-of-man-partnership-ending/|title=Pobjoy Mint and Isle of Man Partnership Ending|date=22 July 2016|website=Coinnews.net|access-date=22 April 2017}}
- {{flagicon|Kyrgyzstan}} Kyrgyzstan
- {{flagicon|Liberia}} Liberia
- {{flagicon|Macau}} Macau
- {{flagicon|Malaysia}} Malaysia
- {{flagicon|Nigeria}} Nigeria
- {{flagicon|Niue}} Niue
- {{flagicon|Peru}} Peru
- {{flagicon|Philippines}} Philippines
- {{flagicon|Pitcairn Islands}} Pitcairn Islands
- {{flagicon|Saint Helena}} Saint Helena
- {{flagicon|Senegal}} Senegal
- {{flagicon|Seychelles}} Seychelles
- {{flagicon|Sierra Leone}} Sierra Leone
- {{flagicon|Solomon Islands}} Solomon Islands
- {{flagicon|Somaliland}} Somaliland
- {{flagicon|South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands}} South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- {{flagicon|Spain}} Spain
- {{flagicon|Tajikistan}} Tajikistan
- {{flagicon|Tanzania}} Tanzania
- {{flagicon|Tokelau}} Tokelau
- {{flagicon|Tonga}} Tonga
- {{flagicon|Tristan da Cunha}} Tristan da Cunha
- {{flagicon|Uzbekistan}} Uzbekistan
- {{flagicon|Vanuatu}} Vanuatu
- {{flagicon|Western Samoa}} Western Samoa
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References
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