![]() These coins had no mint mark to identify them as from Birmingham. The Birmingham Mint won its first contract to strike finished coins for Britain – 500 tons of copper, struck between August 1853 and August 1855, with another contract to follow in 1856. In 1853 the Royal Mint was overwhelmed with producing silver and gold coins. Ralph Heaton III (son of Ralph II) took key workers to Marseilles to equip and operate the French mint there, staying to fulfil the contract, and producing 750 tons of Napoleon III bronze coins from 1853-7. In this the Mint pioneered the minting of bronze. In 1852 the Mint won a contract to produce a new series of coins for France. The same year copper planchets were made for the Royal Mint to make into pennies, halfpennies, farthings, half-farthings and quarter-farthings. In 1851 coins were struck for Chile using the letter H as a mintmark. These were installed at the Bath Street works, and in that year trade tokens were struck for use in Australia. At the auction on 29 April Ralph Heaton II bought the four steam-powered screw presses and six planchet presses for making blanks from strip metal. On 1 April 1850 the auction was announced of equipment from the defunct Soho Mint, created by Matthew Boulton around 1788. Brass chandeliers were made for the newly invented gas lighting and a "bats wing" burner patented. Ralph II engaged in brass founding, stamping and piercing. On 2 December 1817 Ralph I conveyed to his son land and buildings at 71 Bath Street to enable him to develop a separate company. Ralph Heaton II was a die sinker operating in Shadwell Street independently of his father. Ralph Heaton II (1794-October 1862) was the son of Ralph Heaton I, an engineer, inventor and businessman in Slaney Street, and later Shadwell Street. It was created by Ralph Heaton II, using second-hand coin presses bought from the estate of Matthew Boulton. ![]() Its factory was situated in Icknield Street (grid reference SP057877), on the edge of the Jewellery Quarter. ![]() The Birmingham Mint, a coining mint, originally known as Heaton's Mint or Ralph Heaton & Sons, in Birmingham, England started producing tokens and coins in 1850 as a private enterprise, separate from, but in cooperation with the Royal Mint. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |