The minting of coins in Britain began in the first century BC, the earliest coins being crude imitations cast in moulds. This process gave way to striking coins using hand-held tools, the same technique by which coins would be struck for the next 1500 years. After the Roman Conquest the coinage of Iron Age Britain was brought to an end and thereafter large numbers of Roman coins circulated.

From the end of the third century AD some Roman coins were struck at a mint in London but for some 200 years after the Romans withdrew no coins appear to have been struck there. In 650AD, a London mint began operating, at first a little precariously but since the time of Alfred the Great (871-899) its history became continuous and increasingly important.

At the Royal Mint today, traditional skills are still used to create coins of the realm - skills that have been passed down from generation to generation.