OUR STORY

The Pobjoy family has 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. The Company is now the largest private mint in Europe.

For the past 60 years the Company has been deeply involved in the development and manufacture of coins, medals and tokens. The production of fraud-proof tokens for the vending machine industry calls for a higher degree of precision than the ordinary coinage and British 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.

 British Pobjoy Mint has revived many age-old, but long-forgotten numismatic customs. At the same time, however, the Company has gained a reputation for innovation and invention. 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 experts. 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 Bullion 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 of the first Bullion Fine Gold 999.9 Manx Cat coin. Available in five Bullion Fine 999.9 Gold sizes, Proof Fine 999. Silver and Uncirculated Cupro Nickel - coloured and non-coloured, a different Cat coin is produced each year and is now over twenty-one years old.

British Pobjoy Mint has struck commemorative and circulating coins for the Isle of Man, Ascension Islands, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bolivia, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgin Islands, Burundi, Cook Islands, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Gambia, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Macau, Nigeria, Niue, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn Islands, St Helena, Senegal, Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Somaliland, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands, Spain, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tokelau, Tonga, Tristan da Cunha, Uzbekistan, Western Samoa and Vanuatu.

 

 

Many medallion issues have also been produced, notably for Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Arab States. The mint has produced over 50,000 medallions for world wide nature. In 1996 British Pobjoy Mint issued the world's first hologram coin, the image is carefully struck in the coin to produce an unusual colour effect and in 1999 the World's first Titanium coin.

In 2004 British Pobjoy Mint also became involved in the sale of new issue stamps as a natural extension of its numismatic business.

 

Pobjoy Mint Stamps 2022