- Americans mad about UK coins, and The Royal Mint plans to cash in
- A new distribution deal could see £100m of coins shipped to the States
- The Mint is scaling back its foreign coinmaking arm and is looking to fill the gap
The Royal Mint has signed a deal it hopes will help sell £100million of UK-made coins to the US – amid plans to stop making currency on behalf of other countries, This is Money can reveal.
The Mint is the UK’s oldest company and currently makes coins for the UK and 28 other countries at its site in Llantrisant, Wales.
The Mint will stop making coins for other countries from December 2024 but will continue to make UK currency, and commemorative coins.
And to fill the gap of no longer making overseas currency, it has unveiled the plans to sell more UK-made coins to the US as investments and collectible items.
Golden handshake: Wayde Milas of the Rare Coin Company of America and Rebecca Morgan of The Royal Mint hope to increase the number of UK-made coins bought in the United States
The Royal Mint has signed a deal with the import and distribution firm Rare Coin Company of America that it hopes will make £100million over the next three years.
Americans are already keen on UK-made coins, and the Mint said it has seen a 118 per cent increase in sales to the US since 2022.
In particular, US customers bought more than 17,000 of the Mint’s 1oz silver commemorative coins in the past two years, with royalty coins and designs depicting Star Wars and Harry Potter being particularly popular.
The Rare Coin Company of America will have the exclusive rights to sell coins made by the Royal Mint, but not bullion – precious metal shaped into bars or ingots.
Rebecca Morgan, director of commemorative coin at The Royal Mint, said: ‘All our coin collections are made in the UK and British craftsmanship continues to have strong appeal internationally.
‘Recent collections celebrating the Coronation, Star Wars and Liberty and Britannia have seen increased demand from US collectors and we expect this to grow over coming years.’
The Royal Mint is reshaping itself in part due to falling demand for coins overseas – bar the US.
The Mint only made 56 issues of coins in 2022/23, compared to 339 in 2021/22 and 437 in 2020/21, according to latest annual results.
The Royal Mint’s currency arm loses money, and made losses of £13.1million in 2022/23, up from £4.5million the year before.
From December, the Mint wants to shift the 200 staff that currently work on overseas coins and move them into making jewellery and gold recycling.
The Mint wants to recover the gold used in circuit boards, such as those found in mobile phones and laptops.
The company is building a plant in Llantrisant that can recover 99 per cent of the gold used in electronic items.