ROYAL MINT MISHAPS

Danger at the Mint

Continuing the series on coins and health, this time I want to look at the conditions mint workers experienced to produce coins.

There are not many accounts of accidents at the Royal Mint. However on 21st April 1899 the Dover Express reported on an incident at the Tower Mint when three men were injured, one of them seriously. The workers were making granulated copper which means reducing the metal to small particles. This was done by pouring molten metal into water which is a dangerous thing to do if you think of the temperature shock between molten copper and water. When they did the crucible holding the metal fell to the floor and smashed spraying molten metal over the men.

One man had serious burns on his feet. History does not record what became of men, whether they lived or died or whether they could work again. This was an age of very little if any protective equipment. In the Victorian period the working conditions associated with the machinery must have been noisy, hot and unpleasant.

In medieval times coin making was done by hand and brute force. The men were probably only paid by the quantity produced and only made when coins were required. One reference states that that mint workers were often agricultural labourers working near their homes outside the walls of the City of London in the surrounding villages. Men may have preferred to work in daytime and in the Summer when the natural light was better and fingers were not numb with cold.

The Mint was hot and noisy and the buildings at The Tower were poorly maintained. The atmosphere was full of poisonous chemicals and gas produced by the metal working. Acid was used in the process and the raw metals would contain dangerous impurities. Making coins is basically cutting and shaping metal and hitting things hard and accurately. A miss-strike might mean a poorly struck coin or the loss of a finger or hand.

If you think about the working conditions the men endured we would probably not complain about an off-struck coin or a double strike.

For a discussion of a more deliberate death-by-gold, see:
Here's What Actually Happens During an Execution by Molten Gold (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/heres-what-happened-people-who-were-executed-having-molten-gold-poured-down-their-throat-180951695/)

To read David's earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
GERMS AND MONEY (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n14a35.html)
COINS AND HEALTH (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n15a39.html)
COINS AND POISON (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n16a17.html)
COINS AS TALISMANS: SAINT GEORGE'S DAY (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n17a10.html)
LIFE-SAVING COINS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n19a39.html)

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