Royal Mint buys into London based coin dealership

By Jeff Starck

Published: Jul 17, 2017, 8 AM

The Royal Mint makes most of its money, literally, by striking coins (seen here), but has recently purchased a minority stake in a coin dealer.

Image courtesy of the Royal Mint.

Britain’s Royal Mint profits from selling commemorative coins as well as making circulation coins for the British Isles and around the world.

Now, it is expanding its efforts in the coin market by buying a minority stake in coin dealer Sovereign Rarities.

The Royal Mint and Sovereign Rarities announced the cooperation in late June. The Royal Mint made an equity investment in Sovereign Rarities Limited. The decision by the Royal Mint to invest is part of the mint’s five-year plan to enlarge its position in the collector services market.

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The Royal Mint’s unbroken history of minting British coinage dates back more than 1,000 years, while Sovereign Rarities is a London-based numismatic dealership, comprising a team of numismatic specialists having collectively more than 100 years of experience. Sovereign Rarities is a member of the British Numismatic Trade Association and also works in conjunction with museums and other academic institutions and societies to promote the study of numismatics.

There was a time when the Morgan dollar was actually a half dollar: Another column in the July 31 issue of Coin World explains how collectors can create their own archival-quality holders for oversized paper money.

Though the Royal Mint has sourced and sold historic issues of British coinage to its customers (often bringing the ire of major dealers, indignant at the competition and the marked-up prices), this is a broader effort to capture revenue from the collector coin market.

In a press release, Anne Jessopp, Director of Consumer Coin at the Royal Mint confirms, “The collaboration with Sovereign Rarities Limited supports the strategic direction in which the Royal Mint is keen to progress. Both our businesses will be working to accelerate opportunities within this specialist area.”

Ian Goldbart, managing director of Sovereign Rarities, said in a press release: “I am delighted to welcome the Royal Mint as a shareholder. It makes perfect sense for us to strengthen the tie with The Royal Mint, especially as a substantial proportion of the coins we deal with were in fact produced over the last 1,000 years by The Royal Mint.”