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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 26488296, member: 77639&quot;]Although my wife and I have visited a lot of British museums, below are pics from a few.&nbsp; The coins and apparatuses are some of the more interesting to me and ones with decent pics.&nbsp;&nbsp; Mike</p><p><br /></p><p>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>The Tower Mint in London was established in 1279 by Edward I.&nbsp; This was the first centralized mint in England.&nbsp; Before that, there were regional mints scattered around the country.&nbsp; Most of the regional mints closed when the Tower Mint started operation.&nbsp; When the English civil war began in 1642, mintage again was distributed in regional mints (more on this later).&nbsp; After the war’s end in 1650, coinage again was centralized in the Tower.&nbsp; By 1800 space in the Tower was insufficient, so a new mint was constructed on nearby Tower Hill and began operation in 1810.&nbsp; This space eventually was too small, and the present mint in Llantrisant was constructed.&nbsp; The pic and description below are from the Mint Museum in the Tower.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1688759[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1688760[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p><br /></p><p>Up next are some medieval dies and test strikes in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.&nbsp; The forger dies (#3 in the pic) are impressive.&nbsp; It took a big hammer and careful aim to use them.&nbsp; If forgers were caught in that era, they met a very unpleasant end.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1688761[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1688762[/ATTACH] </p><p>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p><br /></p><p>Next, from the Lincoln Museum, is a pot hoard containing coins of the Roman emperor Honorius (ruled 384 – 423).&nbsp; Honorius was the emperor who finally gave up on Britain and ordered his troops and officials to leave.&nbsp; Over the next few hundred years, waves of Jutes, Angles, Saxons and Vikings invaded and settled, leading to constant infighting.&nbsp; Most of the finds of ancient coins in Britain are in pots found by metal detectorists.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1688763[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p><br /></p><p>Last, also from the Lincoln Museum, are Newark siege coins from the civil war (1642-1649) which pitted Charles I against Parliament.&nbsp; Newark was one of several strongholds of Royalists and was besieged by the Parliamentarians.&nbsp; These coins have a distinctive diamond shape.&nbsp; The planchets were made from silver plate contributed by Royalist nobles.&nbsp; The plate was hammered to the required thickness and then diagonally cut to produce strips.&nbsp; Strips were then bias-cut to produce planchets for coining.&nbsp; On some of the coins, hallmarks of the original plate can be seen.&nbsp; Although attacked more than once, Newark was never conquered.&nbsp; But when Charles surrendered elsewhere, Newark opened its gates.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1688764[/ATTACH] </p><p>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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