Trial of the Pyx: Ancient ceremony checks the quality of the nation's coins

It's a coin collector's dream!

The Trial of the Pyx is an ancient ceremony spanning 700 years and a process that ensures the quality of the nation's coins.

It involves three groups of participants: The Royal Mint, who make the coins; The Goldsmith's Company, the experts who check the coins; and the Government - more specifically, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is Rishi Sunak, also known as 'the master of the Mint'.

Each year coins are examined to make sure they meet the correct specifications for circulation.

'A piece of art'

The Queen's Beasts 10kg gold coin is one of the coins being sent to the Trial of the Pyx.

But it's not just 'normal' coins we use day-to-day that are tested. There are collectors coins too. And this year, there's a beast of a Gold coin to be examined.

The Queen's Beasts coin is decorated with animals that are specific to the Queen and her reign. The 10kg Collectors Coin is the largest to be tested at the Trial, and will be inspected for its fineness and quality.

Anne Jessopp, CEO of the The Royal Mint Company said "the coins we submit to the Trial of the Pyx today look very different to those submitted in the twelfth century," and describes the 10kg Masterwork as "a piece of art".

And this year not one, but two of the largest coins ever made by The Royal Mint will appear before the trial - it's another 9.5kg 'Masterwork' celebrating Her Majesty the Queen's 95th birthday.

The coin bears the inscription 'my heart and my devotion' taken from Queen's speech - first televised on the Christmas broadcast of 1957.

What is the Trial of the Pyx?

A sample of coins that are produced - or struck - by The Royal Mint are taken each year to be independently checked by a jury of Goldsmith Company members who are experts in their field.

The Trial is opened by the senior judge in the Royal Courts of Justice, known as the Queen's Remembrancer.

The jurors will examine the fine detail of coins selected before them, where 'Pyx packets' are taken from their chests and each member of the jury must select one coin at random and place them into a ceremonial copper bowl in front of them for testing.

These random choices are then taken to be weighed, measurements are taken and the composition of the metals used goes on to be tested.

This is to ensure the coins we use, or those that collectors buy, meet the necessary requirements.

The Goldsmiths' Hall has been the permanent venue for the Trial since 1871.

History of the Trial

An artist impression of The Trial of the Pyx, taking place in 1870 at Goldsmith's Hall

The Trial of the Pyx is believed to originate in 1180, when Henry II ordered a form of trial for various forms of money control.

The first record of a public trial, like the one we see today, dates back to 1248 when 12 London citizens and 12 goldsmiths were invited to examine the money.

Thirty-one years later in 1279, King Edward I requested that a sample of work created by the Mint should be placed in a small box, or Pyx.

Up until the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the juries remained a mixture of goldsmiths and other citizens of the City of London, but in 1580 she handed full responsibility of the Trial over to the Goldsmith Company - and jurors have been nominated from their members ever since.