London Mint Office

The London Mint Office is a British-based mail order company with headquarters in Camberwell, London that specialises in sourcing and producing commemorative coins, medals and banknotes. Established in 2006, The London Mint Office is part of the Samlerhuset Group.[1], one of Europe's largest coin and medal companies, founded in 1994 and operating in 14 European countries.

The London Mint Office
IndustrySupplier of Coins and medals
Founded2006
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
Daniel Penney
(Managing Director)
ProductsCoins
Medals
Ingots
Banknotes
Websitewww.londonmintoffice.org

The London Mint Office is not related to the much older Royal Mint.

The London Mint Office is an official UK distributor for a number of international mints including the South African Mint [2], the Royal Mint of Spain (Real Casa de la Moneda) and the Royal Canadian Mint, and is an approved member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) since 2009[3].

The company's key business activity is the direct marketing of new and historic coins and medals, and other related collectibles through their website, telesales and media advertising.

Partnerships

In 2012, the company was commissioned by the Organisation Committee for the London 2012 Olympic Games as an official licensee.[1] The London Mint Office has partnered with charities including Waterloo 200, the Merchant Navy Association and the RAF Association, where a percentage of proceeds from sales of coins and medals were donated to their relevant charity [4].

The London Mint Office has on occasion partnered with the Worcestershire Medal Service, holders of a royal warrant as medallists to Her Majesty The Queen [5].

Products
The 2017 Gibraltar Sovereign was created by Angela Pistrucci as a tribute to her ancestor Benedetto Pistrucci's masterwork.

In 2017, The London Mint Office celebrated the bicentennial of artist Benedetto Pistrucci's enduring masterwork Saint George and the dragon which has appeared on UK gold sovereigns since 1817. When looking for surviving relatives of the Italian engraver in 2015, the company discovered that his great-great-great great niece, Angela Pistrucci had become an accomplished artist and sculptor in her own right. Impressed with her work, they immediately commissioned the Canadian artist to create a new interpretation of her ancestors famous design for the 2017 Gibraltar sovereign [6].

Angela was awarded a scholarship to hone her craft at the Italian Mint, and her new Saint George and the Dragon design was officially unveiled to the coin industry at the 46th World Money Fair in Berlin in February 2017 [7].

Exhibitions

The London Mint Office regularly attends coin exhibitions and numismatic events, including the annual Berlin World Money Fair, the world's largest and most important coin convention and meeting place for central banks, government mints, experts, coin dealers and collectors. The event is part-owned by Samlerhuset, and is widely considered to be one of the most important numismatic trade platforms in the world.[8].

In 2012 The London Mint Office paired up with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to exhibit the world's most expensive gold coin, The 1933 Double Eagle, in London[9]. The exhibition was part of a European tour organised by the Samlerhuset Group, and it marked the first time the Smithsonian National Museum had sent an object from its numismatic collection on tour in Europe.

In 2016, The London Mint Office hosted the UK exhibition of the Flowing Hair Dollar[10], the world's most expensive coin ever, selling for $10 million at auction in 2013. The coin was on show at La Galleria in central London. Due to the coin's value, The London Mint Office were forced to implement a complicated logistical operation to ensure the coin remained safe throughout its British leg of its European tour.

Events

To support its Battle of Waterloo campaign in 2015, The London Mint Office organised a special event in London where a memorial to those who fell at Waterloo was unveiled by the current Duke of Wellington at Waterloo station[11]. The event was also attended by broadcaster Peter Snow, overseas ambassadors and descendants of original soldiers from the battle. The unveiling was widely covered by the national media, including the BBC Ten O'Clock News, ITV News, Sky News and twenty regional radio stations. [12]

The following year, The London Mint Office celebrated the centenary of the Battle of Britain by putting a reporter in a war-time Spitfire plane. They also presented military wife, Caroline Lloyd with a silver commemorative medal in honour of the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations. Caroline was chosen to receive the medal because of her family's association with the Queen and Armed Forces[13]

In October 2017 the company issued the UK's first Comicoin, struck for the MCM London Comic Con that year. Visitors to the exhibition at the ExCeL London could queue to receive the free commemorative as a souvenir of their visit. [14]

In November 2017 the company presented Ted and Doris Box from Chingford in north London with a special one off personalised commemorative medal to celebrate their Platinum Wedding Anniversary. They married in 1947, in the same year as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The presentation was covered by BBC London News and took place at Luton Hoo, where the Royal couple had spent their honeymoon seventy years earlier. [15]

In August 2018 the company presented Porthcawl Museum [16] in South Wales with a selection of replica blueprints, photographs, maps, plans, and other documents from the National Archives that once briefed Squadron 617 ahead of their 'Dambusters' mission over Nazi Germany in May 1943. Many of the aircrews that took part in the daring raid, codenamed Operation Chastise, included men trained either at RAF Stormy Down, near Porthcawl or at RAF Saint Athan in the neighbouring Vale of Glamorgan. The London Mint Office also donated a commemorative coin issued to mark the 75th Anniversary of the mission, which will also go on display in the museum. The presentation was covered by the local media, including the ITV Wales Evening News [17] and BBC Wales[18]

In January 2019 it was reported that The London Mint Office had commissioned acclaimed Norwegian artist Ross Kolby to paint a portrait of "The Forces' Sweetheart" Dame Vera Lynn. The painting will hang in the Royal Albert Hall in London where Dame Vera has performed on 52 occasions. [19]

In May 2019 the company presented a gold coin commemorating the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the world's largest gold nugget to the mayor of Redruth in Cornwall. The Welcome Stranger was discovered in Australia by two Cornish prospectors, and the company organised an appeal to find descendants still living in Cornwall. [20]

Awards

In 2016 The London Mint Office and PR agency Loudmouth PR won a Bronze Stevie Award[21] in ‘PR Campaign of the Year – Events and Observances’ at the 13th Annual International Business Awards for its Waterloo 200 Campaign.

Criticism
  • Although The London Mint Office does not claim that it is in any way related to the much older Royal Mint, the similarity in names may cause confusion.
  • The London Mint Office uses a "free coin, just pay post and packing" marketing offer to attract interest.[22]
  • Some people claim on a MoneySavingExpert.com forum that
    • the free coin will be accompanied by an unstoppable deluge of unrequested non-free gifts,
    • there are demands for payment for these subsequent gifts, and that these demands are illegal in UK law,
    • that direct debit payment prices rise without notice or customer agreement.
    • These people feel they have been scammed and recommend avoiding doing business with The London Mint Office.
  • Reviews on https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/londonmintoffice.org show similar accusations.
gollark: Presumably, they just take the input executable, compress/encrypt/whatever its machine code, and store it as data in a new executable which also contains code to decompress/decrypt/whatever it and load it into memory from which it can be executed, but also presumably you already knew that and it's not very helpful.
gollark: zstandard
gollark: Actually, use formatting to pack in extra data, like in the X language.
gollark: Mildly more efficient.
gollark: You could use base85 instead.

References
  1. The London Mint Office - Samlerhuset.com
  2. London Mint Office honours 50th Anniversary of Churchill’s death with Launch of commemorative Krugerrand coin - Business Wire
  3. The London Mint Office Ltd - DMA
  4. Battle of Britain medals raise £47k to date for Royal Air Forces Association - Fundraising .co.uk, 10 May 2016, added 1 June 2018
  5. Farmer, Ben (11 November 2014). "Britain's Waterloo allies awarded medals – 199 years late". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  6. "Times Colonist (January 13, 2017) Relative of 1817 coin-engraver styles 200-year update".
  7. "The Gibraltar Olive Press (10th February 2017) New Gibraltar Sovereign Coin Launched at Berlin's World Money Fair".
  8. "Rückblick 2016 › World Money Fair". www.worldmoneyfair.de. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  9. "The Single Coin Worth Millions". Huffingtonpost.co.uk. 10 February 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  10. Foster, Patrick (11 March 2016). "World's most expensive coin coming to UK". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  11. team, London SE1 website. "Duke of Wellington unveils Battle of Waterloo memorial at station". London-se1.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  12. "London Mint Office Waterloo - Loudmouth PR London". loudmouthpr.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  13. "Military wife chosen to receive commemorative medal from the London Mint Office". Windsorexpress.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  14. "MCM ComicCon The London Mint Office bring the coin of the Comic Con realm!".
  15. "BBC London News (November 21st 2017) Another special couple celebrating 70 years together".
  16. "Porthcawl Museum Website".
  17. "ITV Wales Evening News (August 11th 2018) Porthcawl museum celebrates its links with one of the most daring missions of the Second World War".
  18. "BBC News (August 11th 2018) South Wales Dambusters links marked with museum donation".
  19. "Mid Sussex Times (January 14th 2019) Dame Vera Lynn portrait to hang on display at Royal Albert Hall".
  20. "Falmouth Packet (May 17th 2019) John Deason and Richard Oates found world's largest gold nugget".
  21. "Awards : Loudmouth PR wins a gong for their client London Mint Office - TheMarketingblogTheMarketingblog". Themarketingblog.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdal7CTAV8M
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