Established in 1816 by the Master of the Royal Mint, William Wellesley Pole, the Museum has one of the finest collections of coins and related material in the world. Originally intended as a source of inspiration for Royal Mint engravers, a function it retains to this day, it has grown and developed into a collection about how money is made and how the Royal Mint has evolved over the last 1100 years. For over 200 years a dedicated staff of curators, numismatists and museum specialists have catalogued, cared for and enhanced the collection which contains nearly 100,000 coins including an abundance of proofs, patterns and trial pieces. Medals and seals are also well represented along with plaster models, balances, weights and thousands of original drawings. Above all, perhaps, it incorporates roughly 50,000 master tools and dies representing over 400 years of coin and medal production, a collection whose importance is unrivalled in the United Kingdom.