Making the collection

Britain's rich history has been captured in the Great Seals of the Realm Silver Collections. They are unprecedented collections that celebrate the most important symbol of the British establishment at any given time in the last 200 years. They have proved very exciting collections for the Royal Mint and great care was taken in their manufacture.

The original plaster models are hugely important items and are held in the Royal Mint Museum. Nevertheless, especially for the Great Seals of the Realm Twentieth-Century Silver Collection, they were made available to the Chief Engraver. Mindful of their great value as historic works of art and unwilling to put them at risk he created exact replicas to use in the production of the master tools. The originals could then be safely returned to the Museum and the replicas took their place in the labour-intensive manufacturing process.

They were coated with a hard ceramic lacquer and their designs scanned using an extremely sensitive ruby-tipped probe, a process which took over 40 hours on each design. Every detail of all 12 designs was thus captured as a three-dimensional computer image which could then be reduced to the correct size. A computercontrolled engraving machine, fitted with hand-made tungsten carbide cutters, engraved the designs into steel punches. Blending this state of the art technology with meticulous craftsmanship, the Royal Mint Design Team then finished the dies, ensuring no details had been lost. One by one the fine silver blanks were placed in position in a coining press and struck with tremendous force at least three times. Their satin finish is entirely in keeping with the intricate historic designs and sympathetic to the collection as a whole.