| Description | The Operational Records relating to the various mint machinery supplied by Soho Mint are subdivided into four groups under the headings shown at the beginning of this Introduction.
The first group comprises records relating to the Royal (or British, or English) Mint. These include various various small Order Books. The book entitled 'Order Book—Mr. Brunton, Soho Foundry, Eagle Foundry, &c.'contains a record of outgoing orders for parts for the mint. The book now listed as 'Order Book (Boulton, Watt, & Co.)' has no contemporary title besides the words 'National Mint'; it contains orders from William Creighton of the Soho Drawing Office, with specifications of parts. The 'Order Book for the Royal Mint, London' records orders received from that place. The book now listed as 'Articles furnished to the Royal Mint' is merely entitled 'Royal Mint, 1816'.
The Workmen's Books contain accounts with individual workmen. Six of these were formerly been in one bundle, the wrapper of which survives. The seventh is a document of a similar form, for a later period.
The three Memorandum Books contain records of workmen's time and wages on various projects connected with the Royal Mint.
Fifteen small volumes relating to the Danish, Russian, and Portuguese (i.e. Brazilian) Mints were formerly contained in a parcel labelled:
Miscellaneous-Books of
Wages, Piece-work, &ca
in preparing Machinery for the
Danish, Russian, & Portuguese
Mints—(15 Books)
But only four volumes relating to these mints survive, and they do not appear to match the description of the label. These volumes, with a loose copy of the specification of the Danish Mint, form the second group.
The contents of the third group of records date from the years 1821 to 1835, and relate to various mint machinery made during this period—namely for the Calcutta Mint, the Bombay Mint, the Soho New Mint, the Guanaxuato Mint, and the Mexico City Mint. There is also a single Rough Packing Book for the Culiacan Mint. It must be noted that the mints for Guanaxuato (or Guanajuato—the contemporary spelling) and Mexico City are generally referred to in the contemporary records by the name of the party who ordered them, namely Robert Mushet, and Barclay, Herring, Richardson, & Co. respectively.
The records in this group include two dissimilar Estimate Books, and series of Order Books (containing outgoing orders for parts), Fitting Books, and Packing Books. There are also various related loose Papers. For the Calcutta Mint there is a set of Workmen's Books (1821-1823) similar to those kept for the Royal Mint (see above). The account book of Edward Riley (1826-1827) is somewhat different from the earlier workmen's books, and contains his account for die-forging work for the Calcutta Mint and an account with William Alder for dies for the same. For the Calcutta Mint, the Soho New Mint, the Guanaxuato Mint, and the Mexico City Mint there are roughly uniform sets of miscellaneous operational books, now given the title 'Manufacturing Account Books.'
The fourth group comprises a single Packer's Book, covering the period from 1834 to 1850, when the Mint was closed.
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