Important British and World Coins

Miscellaneous, The Mint, Birmingham Ltd: Silver check, bust of Ray King right, the mint birmingham limited birmingham. england. around, rev. supplier of coinage & coinage blanks around managing director w.r.p. king, h below, edge plain, 29.5mm, 12.17g/12h (Sweeny 60; cf. DNW 53, 911). Minor handling marks on reverse, otherwise virtually as struck (£15-25)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Joanna Tansley Collection of Patterns, Proofs and Coining Trials.

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William Raymond Pearce King, CBE (1910-80) was one of the pivotal figures in the history of the Birmingham mint in the mid 20th century. A mechanical and industrial engineer with Imperial Metal Industries, he was persuaded to join the Mint by W.F. Brazener, who was appointed general manager in the wake of the shareholder revolt of 1935 that saw the operation of the Mint pass out of family control. King joined as a departmental manager, rising to become Mint manager in 1937, concurrent with a turnround of the business and the order book filling up. Brazener retired in April 1960 and King took over as managing director. During the next decade the Mint’s coinage business underwent a great resurgence. In April 1973 King became vice chairman, succeeding as chairman in April 1974 when the company changed its name to The Birmingham Mint Ltd. He retired from the board in 1978