2017-02-03 Fri

Samples of some Royal Mint coins that were issued last year went on trial during the Trial of the Pyx at Goldsmiths’ Hall, London on 30th January. Some of these coins include the new £1 coin, and the Kilo coin celebrating the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth. The event is an ancient annual quality assurance ceremony that was introduced in 1282.

The new 12-sided bimetallic coin £1 coin will be released on 28th March 2017. Citizens are being asked to spend the old coins before 15th October 2017 so that they can be re-used to make the new ones. Samples are selected randomly at the Trial and weighed for accuracy. Esteemed dignitaries like Queen’s Remembrancer or their deputy and an independent jury of Liverymen of the Goldsmiths’ Company attend the event.

Pyx boxes are given to the jury members who select random coins and place them in copper bowls. The rest are kept in wooden bowls and weighed. The Trial is then adjourned until May for Goldsmiths Assay Laboratory and the National Measurement Office to test the coins.

Modern techniques like X-Ray Fluorescence are used in assaying, along with traditional methods like cupellation for testing of metals. The Master of the Mint was imprisoned for six weeks in 1318 and even Sir Isaac Newton was questioned at one of these events. Modern punishments have been mellowed down to a great extent. The Trial is attended by the oldest and most respectable authorities like the Master and Deputy Master of the Royal Mint, The Queen’s Assay Master and The Queen’s Remembrancer.