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The Trial of the Pyx
The benchmark against which coins are tested is called a Trial Plate.
These metal plates of gold, silver and cupro-nickel, which used to
be under the personal charge of the monarch in the Exchequer, are
now the responsibility of the National Weights and Measures Laboratory
of the DTI, along with the weights against which the coins are measured.
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| Jury at The Trial
of the Pyx, verifying quantities of coins
presented by the Royal Mint |
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In February each
year, officials from the Royal Mint bring chests (pyx) to Goldsmiths'
Hall, containing coins put aside in the course of manufacture
during the previous year. These coins, normally several thousand
in total, represent one coin from every batch of each denomination
minted.
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The trial jury, comprising members of the
Goldsmiths' Company, is summoned to the Hall by the senior judge in
the Courts of Justice, known as the Queen's Remembrancer, and is a
formal court of law. During the opening proceedings the coins are
counted and weighed, and a selection put aside for testing by the
Assay Office.
The Delivery of the Verdict, presided over once more by the Queen's
Remembrancer, takes place some two months later, once the Assay Office
has verified the coins. It is attended by the Chancellor of the Exchequer
(who is the Master of the Mint) or his representative.
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