The Royal Mint has bought a minority stake in a coin dealership in Mayfair as it seeks to expand its growing interest in the market for old currency.

It is the first time that the Mint has taken a stake in a dealer in historic coins and the stake in Sovereign Rarities signals its intention to use its brand across the coin-collecting market, according to the Antiques Trade Gazette.

It also will enable the Mint to offer a full range of historic coins, across all periods of British coin production, including some that are thousands of years old. The Royal Mint was established under Alfred the Great in 886. Today it operates as a limited company owned solely by the Treasury.

Alongside supplying all coinage for the UK and other issuing authorities worldwide, the Mint has a growing number of commercial interests, including a bullion trading website, a visitor centre at its headquarters in Llantrisant, south Wales, and a modern commemorative coins business.

It has a small interest in the historic coin market, but typically it has been confined to 19th and 20th-century issues and proof sets. However, the Mint wants to expand its activities in the coin-collecting market, which is a multibillion-pound business worldwide, after expressions of interest from coin-collecting customers.

To read the complete article, see:
Royal Mint buys minority stake in coin dealership Sovereign Rarities(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/royal-mint-buys-minority-stake-in-coin-dealership-sovereign-rarities-3798phg0z)

The Royal Mint has confirmed that it is considering offering coin valuations as part of its future strategy to grow in the collecting market.

Currently, the government-owned coin maker is unable to value a coin but it can confirm whether it is real or fake. It will typically supply the coin owner with a letter to confirm or deny its legitimacy, and the owner can then go on to sell piece through a coin dealer, at a physical auction, or on online.

However, a spokesperson for The Royal Mint confirmed to the Telegraph that as well as producing coins, it is considering offering the valuation service in future because of increasing interest from customers.

The service will most appeal to coin collectors, or those who have been bequeathed large collections that they want assessed and sold. With so much noise around "error" coins fetching thousands of pounds at auction, it will also be popular with many of those who have been given a cracked, warped or misshapen new 12-sided £1 coin.

The Mint would not disclose any further information about the service, or whether customers would be charged to use it.

Yesterday it was revealed that the Royal Mint had made an equity investment in a coin dealership in London's Mayfair, in a bid to capitalise on the growing interest in coin collecting.

To read the complete article, see:
Do you have a rare coin in your collection? The Royal Mint could soon start offering valuations (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/06/30/do-have-rare-coin-collection-royal-mint-could-soon-start-offering/)