From the Royal Mint Museum...
The Royal Mint Museum houses one of the finest coin collections in the world, containing some of the most outstanding rarities of the modern British coinage.
In an effort to share this national treasure more widely, an item from the Museum will be selected and explained each month on the Royal Mint website. Over a period of time these short notes will form a fascinating insight into the Royal Mint and the coins it has made for over 1000 years.
Gold Coin Changer
When the sovereign was a circulating coin, for many people it would have represented a sizeable amount of money and access to some means of obtaining change for such a high value coin would no doubt have been of real benefit. By offering the facility of exchanging a gold coin for small change in silver, the machine illustrated here, which dates from the end of the nineteenth century, would have addressed this very issue.
Although its operation might have seemed basic, it did in fact check the weight, diameter and thickness of sovereigns and half-sovereigns, and would have probably been sophisticated enough to deter the unscrupulous. Being located in a hotel lobby or in a London club might have also prevented its being misused but precisely where it would have been housed is a question that has puzzled those who have seen it in the Museum and for which there has not yet been a definite answer.
|