Soho Mint - A World First!

Before any coinage becomes legal tender in the United Kingdom, it must be authorised by a Royal Proclamation, issued by the King or Queen of the time. This is true today as it was in 1797 when King George III issued a proclamation regarding the issue of the ‘Cartwheel’ coinage. Official proclamations and notices are published in the London Gazette (together with the other national journals of record, the Edinburgh Gazette, and the Belfast Gazette, though this would have been the Dublin Gazette at this period.

Soho’s first official coinage for the United Kingdom was ‘Gazetted’ in issue number 14,032 published for the period  29th July to 1st August 1797. The Proclamation was issued by the King from St James’s Palace, London, on 26th July 1797.

Click on the small image above left to see a larger (and readable!) version. The file is in .pdf format, so you will need Adobe Reader, or similar software.