Artefacts
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A small collection of artefacts associated with the work of the Royal Mint Refinery.
A Balance Beam weighing scale and three sets of weights, mounted in a wood and glass case was used at the Royal Mint Refinery to weigh gold, and after the Refinery closed in the late 1960s, was displayed at New Court until the third New Court building was demolished in 2008. This will be found listed as 000/2176 under New Court: artefacts.
Royal Mint Refinery: artefacts, box of precious metal samples, c.1860
000/1911/41, 1 item
Wooden box, about 25 cm square, containing samples of precious metals. Its origins are unclear, but it may date from the days of the London bank’s early involvement with the mining and refining of Australian and Californian gold from the 1850s. The box contains four samples of the precious metals that make up a Mexican Piastre, a gold bar from Australia and gold from California, and gives (in French) the precise proportions of gold, silver, copper, platinum, iridium and lead in each of the samples tested. The box may have been given to the Rothschild partners as a gift, or possibly it was made up by the first staff of the Rothschild Royal Mint Refinery, based on tests of gold made at the request of Sir Anthony de Rothschild (1810-1876) the driving force behind the establishment of Refinery. If so, it may be one the earliest surviving relics of this important industrial enterprise.
Royal Mint Refinery: artefacts, metal stamps and punches, c.1900-1960
000/2296, 42 items
A collection of heavy metal stamps, punches and dies used by the Royal Mint Refinery to stamp Rothschild identification marks on to products (primarily gold bars) of the Royal Mint Refinery. Date of these items is uncertain, but likely to have been in use c.1900-c.1960. Some of the stamps are recognisable from images of Royal Mint Refinery gold bars which clearly bear them. Includes punches, round dies, wooden handled stamps, 'Rothschild' punches, Rothschild assay date stamps, hand date stamp for the 1950s in original box.
Royal Mint Refinery: artefacts, copper sheet, 1911
000/1911/4, 1 item
Copper plaque from the Royal Mint Refinery commemorating the first electrolytic copper sheet manufactured in 1911.
Royal Mint Refinery: artefacts, fuse stamp, 1915
000/1911/26, 1 item
Turned fuse stamp, manufactured at the Royal Mint Refinery. Inscribed ‘Turned Fuse stamping Made at RMR. November, 1915’. Made as a commemorative item, possibly connected to munitions production in the First World War and possibly used as a paperweight at the Royal Mint Refinery or at New Court.
Royal Mint Refinery: artefacts, trays, c.1915
000/1911/27, 2 items
Two ash-trays/trinket trays possibly made at the Royal Mint Refinery. c.1915: tray in the shape of a club; tray in the shape of a diamond.
Royal Mint Refinery: artefacts, 'Hercules Disc', c.1950
000/1182, 2 items
‘Hercules Disc', a 22ct gold coin made for the First Banking Tangiers Bank in the 1950s at the request of Edouard le Roux, the owner of the bank. The obverse shows a low relief of the figure of Hercules. The reverse reads: 'One fine ounce troy (grms 31.103) of gold assay 916.7. Refined by N M Rothschild & Sons RMR.'
Royal Mint Refinery: artefacts, examples of wire , c.1950
000/1911/29, 1 packet
Examples of Molybendum wire, gold plated wire and other metal objects produced by the Royal Mint Refinery. The Royal Mint Refinery was owned by N M Rothschild & Sons for over 100 years, occupying premises at 19 Royal Mint Street in London. For many years the activities were principally concerned with refining gold for the Royal Mint, which was located adjacent to the refinery. During both World Wars, the Royal Mint Refinery was diverted to the production of munitions. After the Second World War the business was diversified to manufacture copper and brass strip, refine silver and de-monetise coinage.