These are gold but now I know what a "scissel" actually looks like:
(http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/sites/default/files/styles/image_six2/public/LON14_UNL_008.jpg)
A Sydney Royal Mint worker holding 'scissels', fillets of gold from which coin blanks have been cut. The scissels would be returned to the Melting House for melting, January 1927. National Library of Australia: © Fairfax Syndication
This pic has no attribution but I assume its Sydney Mint:
(http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/sites/default/files/styles/heroimages/public/LON14_UNL_006_0.jpg)
http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/if-these-walls-could-talk-mint
(http://www.sydneyarchitecture.com/cbd/cbd001-hyde_park_barracks_1871b.jpg)
(http://www.cruzis-coins.com/Grading/sydm.jpg)
From the book, "The Sovereign"
(http://sydney.edu.au/museums/images/content/exhibitions-events/robert-hunt/Hunt-HP89.19.80.jpg)
Interior of the Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint, 21 March 1892, Robert Hunt, albumen print. HP89.19.80
(http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn6342881-v)
Men pouring metal for coins into tubes at the Sydney Mint
Very nice.
Love those old BW photos.
Never trust anything that cannot that you have not verified yourself (even things published by the major museums or the national library).
Look at that first image. What gold coin (Sov? or Half Sov?) would have blanks so large punched out? Looks more like the size of say a florin. I'm assuming that somebody (at the library or at Fairfax) felt the need to add a description and isn't a numismatist so they just winged it.
Same with the last image. Tubes?:@ More likely moulds.
Mate the bloke holding The scissels is a hobbit,
That's why they didn't show his feet in the Pic :laugh2:
Also, the attribution on the first photo says 1927 but I thought the mint closed in 1926.
Quote from: 'r9453' pid='91648' dateline='1467109591'Also, the attribution on the first photo says 1927 but I thought the mint closed in 1926.
Doh! I missed that. 11th August 1926 according to 2 sources (but can we trust those sources?:mocking:)
Perhaps LeSouef and his restrikes of the 5? pound gold coins might have made scissel with big holes (but he only struck a handful and the Hobbit is holding scissel with enough holes for a lot more)
Good find,i've seen the first Pic. somewhere before,a guy wrote a Book on the Sydney Mint back in the 1960/70's,just did a Google and it didn't show but i'll keep looking.
technicalities aside
it is cool to see a photo of a scissel
thanks Rnumbers for the thread!
Quote from: 'Basil' pid='91655' dateline='1467157578'Good find,i've seen the first Pic. somewhere before,a guy wrote a Book on the Sydney Mint back in the 1960/70's,just did a Google and it didn't show but i'll keep looking.
I was looking for photographic evidence of the minting process for KGV pennies but got sidetracked. Was the book you refer to called The Sovereign? It's mentioned here:
http://www.cruzis-coins.com/Grading/SydneyMint.html
Great topic and pics Rob Two Bob. Love the line shafts and belt drives, today's industry couldn't handle this type of set up without there being a million cages and guards to protect the inexperienced cowboys plucked from the street. :angel:
That front sheet looks to be only half punched out. And no clipped coins getting done either :)
Quote from: 'r9453' pid='91660' dateline='1467162884'I was looking for photographic evidence of the minting process for KGV pennies but got sidetracked. Was the book you refer to called The Sovereign? It's mentioned here:
http://www.cruzis-coins.com/Grading/SydneyMint.html
No i don't think so but my memory isn't great.IIRC it told of power struggles in the early 1920's as they contemplated Square Coins and changing the Copper/Tin combo to cheaper hardier materials,shambolic record keeping and also possible corruption.
I do remember our local Coin Dealer,who i borrowed the copy off, was not impressed,"another self appointed Coin expert joining dots to express his opinion",or something like that. I'll know it when i see it.
Pre-decimal coinage at Sydney:
(http://i.imgur.com/iuGfp2l.jpg)
EDIT: Ooops, cross out 1922 shilling. Do I need to add 1926 pennies?
I found this whilst looking for the Clip Info.,not sure where i got it from.
Edit...its from the Renniks Coin Guide,i must have copied it a few years back for some reason.
(http://www.australian-coins.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10136/Sydney_Mint_Coins_Resize.jpg)
"While the 1923 half penny has a reasonably sizable mintage of 1,113,600 coins being struck at the Sydney
mint, these were dated 1922 and the 1923 mintage was actually struck at the Melbourne mint with a requested total of 480,000 coins."
http://www.bluesheet.com.au/Australia/Commonwealth_Coinage/Half_Penny/George_V/1923_MS.html
Sydney struck pennies until early 1921 (dated 1920) with the last striking on 15/1/1921, they then struck shilings. In 1923 they struck halfpence both early in the year and again in December 1923.
Following a comment by NE in another thread I looked up Sydney Mint:
https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives
History note
The Legislative Council of New South Wales first petitioned in 1851 for a mint to be established in the colony, and in 1853 this was accomplished by an Order in Council in Great Britain providing for a branch of the Royal Mint to be set up in Sydney. (1) Under the Order, the Chief Officer of the Sydney branch was to be a Deputy Master of the Royal Mint and was to be appointed at Her Majesty\u2019s pleasure.
The Sydney branch was to consist of four sections - bullion office, melting house, coining department, and the accountants department. The principal officers of these sections were to be appointed by the Commissioners of Her Majesty\u2019s Treasury. (2) The Sydney branch opened on 14 May 1855 and would convert bullion from the gold fields into legal tender. (3) In June and September of 1855, Regulations for the receipt and issue of gold were issued by the Colonial Secretary\u2019s Office detailing the price offered for bullion and the refusal to accept jewellery or gold plate for minting purposes. During the first five years, the Mint\'s coin output annually averaged over \u00A3 1,000,000, while the amount of raw gold exported from New South Wales declined sharply. (4) For more than ten years, all sovereigns minted in Sydney were legal tender only in the Australian colonies and New Zealand, but in February 1886 they became legal tender in the United Kingdom. In 1868, Sydney\'s sovereigns and half sovereigns became legal tender for all British colonies and were already identical, save for a small mint mark, with British coins. (5) The Sydney Mint was first used for the issue of Imperial bronze coin in 1868 and for Imperial silver coin in 1879. During its period of operation, the Mint treated 42 million ounces of gold, valued approximately at \u00A3 156, 000, 000. (6) After the visit to Australia of the Master of the Mint in late 1925, the New South Wales Government decided to close the Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint at the end of 1926. On 30 April 1926, the Government announced in the Government Gazette that the Regulations for the Receipt and Coinage of Gold would be cancelled from 30 June 1926 and, therefore, no further deposits of gold would be received by the Mint. (7) The Royal Mint\u2019s Sydney Branch closed on 31 December 1926, although an office was kept open until January 1927 to finalise all accounts. (8) FOOTNOTES (1). General Order Book, Royal Mint Sydney, State Records stroke number 2\/766; The Legislative Council of NSW petitioned the Queen for the establishment of a branch of the Royal Mint at Sydney. The petition dated 19 December 1851 was forwarded to Earl Grey, Her Majesty\u2019s Principal Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs. Copies of official papers relating to the Mint, 1852 \u2013 1870, 3\/1684. The Order had its origins in a Minute from the Lords Commissioners of the Imperial Treasury dated the 22 March 1853, in which the conditions for the establishment of a Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint were set out. (2) loc. cit. (3). New South Wales Government Gazette, 10 May 1855, p1365. (4). Concise Guide to the Archives of New South Wales, Royal Mint, Sydney Branch. (5). Concise Guide to the Archives of New South Wales, Royal Mint, Sydney Branch. (6. The Daily Guardian, 23 November 1926. (7). New South Wales Government Gazette, 30 April 1926, p5965. (8). Correspondence on the closing of the Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint, 4 February 1927, State Records stroke number 3\/1734.9
Mint Issue Nr. 54 (2003):
(http://i.imgur.com/LAt77Hj.jpg)