The history of the Royal Mint is the history of British money. Founded in 886 AD during the reign of Alfred the Great, the mint centralised coin production in London in 1279 and operated from the Tower of London for over eight hundred years before relocating to its current site in Llantrisant, Wales, in 1968. In that time it struck coinage for every British monarch, served as the model from which the Perth Mint, Royal Canadian Mint, and South African Mint were all founded, and counted Sir Isaac Newton among its Wardens — responsible, in his tenure, for investigating counterfeiting cases.
The mint moved from the Tower to Wales the same decade Britain decimalised its currency. Today it operates as a company wholly owned by HM Treasury, produces all of the United Kingdom's circulating coinage, and manufactures coins for more than sixty countries worldwide.
The Silver Britannia: Britain's bullion standard since 1997
The Britannia figure has appeared on British coins since 1672. The Silver Britannia as a bullion product launched in 1997, a decade after the Gold Britannia. Philip Nathan's reverse design — Britannia helmeted, trident raised, shield bearing the Union flag — has become one of the most recognised coin designs in the European market.
The 2026 Silver Britannia carries four independent security features integrated into the design itself: a latent image that shifts between a trident and padlock as viewing angle changes, surface animation on the waves behind Britannia, micro-text reading DECUS ET TUTAMEN along the design border, and tincture lines defining the Union flag on her shield. No other major sovereign bullion coin at this price point carries this level of integrated authentication.
Struck in .999 fine silver with £2 legal tender status and unlimited mintage, the Britannia is the most liquid Royal Mint silver product in the European market — recognised without question by dealers in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium.
Legendary Creatures: a new Royal Mint series opens with Nessie
The 2026 Legendary Creatures series is the Royal Mint's newest bullion programme — and it opens with the most debated creature in British mythology. The Loch Ness Monster has occupied public consciousness since 1934, when a photograph in a national newspaper made the question global. The Royal Mint's coin captures the creature mid-emergence — mostly obscured, partially visible, deliberately unresolved. It is a first-issue coin in a new series from an institution with eleven centuries of precedent behind it.
For collectors who build Royal Mint series from their opening releases — a pattern established across the Queen's Beasts and Tudor Beasts — the Loch Ness Monster 2026 is the entry point.
Royal Mint coins at Pure X Precious
We carry the Silver Britannia and the Legendary Creatures Loch Ness Monster from the 2026 Royal Mint programme. All products are authenticated before shipping and dispatched insured and tracked from Breda, Netherlands. New Royal Mint releases are added to our catalogue as they become available.
