The Pobjoy Mint

The Pobjoy family have been associated with fine metalwork since the Middle Ages. The Company was recently granted permission to use the family Coat of Arms in which the Medieval Popinjay is the central motif. The Popinjay was a painted wooden parrot used in archery contests in the 14th century and the name Pobjoy is derived from this. The Latin motto 'OCULO CERTO' means 'with an unerring eye' and applies equally to the ancestor's prowess as a marksman, as to the Company's reputation for the high quality and precision of its products. Over the past three centuries, the Company has been involved in many diverse fields, but they have always been involved in metal, both base and precious. During World War II Pobjoy Aero Engineering was involved in the manufacturing of the famous Spitfire wings. They are now the largest private mint in Europe.

For the past 50 years the Company has been deeply involved in the development and manufacture of coins, medals and tokens. It is worth noting that the production of fraud-proof tokens for the vending machine industry calls for a higher degree of precision than the ordinary coinage, and the Pobjoy Mint has supplied much of this market in the United Kingdom. Since 1969, 370 million medals and tokens have been exported to the Far East and over 300 million promotional medals have been produced for many petrol stations and food stores.

The Pobjoy Mint has revived many age-old, but long-forgotten numismatic customs. At the same time, however, it has been in the forefront of numismatic development and has acquired an enviable reputation as a trendsetter. It developed the world's first satisfactory man-made precious metal, called Virenium, which has been successfully used in high denomination coinage since 1978. This was hailed worldwide as the first significant breakthrough in coinage this century. The Mint has also developed coining equipment. Apart from the circulating coinage produced on high speed presses, it has made a specialty of the deluxe pieces sought after by numismatic connoisseurs. The proof coins are individually struck by hand, at least four times each, on specially polished discs of precious metal. A successful achievement has been the introduction of the Noble, a bullion coin containing one ounce of pure platinum, and the Gold Angel. The Gold Angel has already achieved the reputation of winning the 'Best Gold Coin of the World' Award in the USA and is quoted daily in the Financial Times and on the screens of Reuters. This was followed by the launch on 9 December 1988 of the first British Fine Gold 999.9 Manx Cat coin produced by Pobjoys. These coins, which have now become Asia's best volume coin, see a different cat produced each year.

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