PART II : READING COMPREHENSION
British coins tested for quality in 700-year-old ‘Trial of the Pyx’
Britain’s coins have been tested for their metallic composition, weight and size in the country’s oldest judicial process called the Trial of the Pyx, which carries the maximum punishment of imprisonment for the chancellor if the coinage is found to be of poor quality.
Officials from the Royal Mint on Tuesday brought close to 10,000 coins to King’s Remembrancer, the oldest judicial office in the UK, to be counted and weighed in an official ceremony at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London.
For the first time in seven decades, there will be coins with two monarchs’ heads — Her Late Majesty and King Charles — which only happens when a monarch dies, and a new reign begins.
Another unusual addition — a 15kg solid gold coin, the largest ever made — joins this year’s collection.
The Trial of the Pyx, which has barely changed since the reign of Edward I, is not just ceremonial, but has a formal role as an external assessor of the work of the Royal Mint, the UK’s official coin maker. The coins represent one piece from every batch of each denomination minted.
The trial by jury, which takes place annually, dates back to the 12th century, when the ceremony was created to ensure that the coins produced by the Royal Mint were up to standard.
The jury must consist of at least six members of the Goldsmiths’ Company, one of the twelve senior livery companies of the City of London, originally founded to support the gold-making trade.
The jury has powers to take action against the master of the mint, a role held by chancellor Jeremy Hunt. If the trial determines that the coinage is faulty, the chancellor can be fined, struck off or imprisoned.
The last master of the mint to be penalised by the jury was Isaac Newton in 1696. Another was sent to prison for six weeks in 1318.
The trial ensures that every coin produced by the Royal Mint meets a strict set of standards aimed at protecting consumers and that coins can, for example, be used in vending machines.
Throughout the year, coins are randomly selected and sealed in “Pyx boxes” — the word pyx is derived from the Latin pyxis or small box — for the testing ceremony.
A sample of new coins is analysed by the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office, which test the purity of precious metal, weight and diameter of certain denominations.
Eleni Bide, Goldsmiths’ librarian, said that the trial “has a really serious practical purpose”. “It’s a form of very sophisticated quality control. It’s still really important to make sure that the coins produced are uniform, they are produced [to] a very clear specification, and this is to make sure that people have confidence in them,” she said.
Officials from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy attended the ceremony on Tuesday.
The event takes place at the Goldsmiths’ Company, which has been responsible for the trial since 1580. The Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office has three months to test the coins.
Anne Jessopp, deputy master and chief executive of the Royal Mint, said: “Quality, accuracy and precision of our coinage is of highest importance to the Royal Mint. This year will see one of the biggest changes to UK coins for decades take place as King Charles III’s portrait begins to appear on all new UK coins.”
Financial Times, Daniel Thomas, 7th February 2023
Climate Targets & the appetite for change
The UK has made good progress towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 but getting there may need higher taxes. That's according to leading economist Lord Nicholas Stern, who says both public and private investment in new technologies is needed. The UK is also being urged to follow the US in stimulating green technology by a former boss of oil giant BP. But the government said the UK is "leading the way" on climate change.
Lord Stern told the BBC: "We must have growth and we must drive down emissions, and it’s investment in the new technologies that's going to get us there." He added: "I'm not arguing for delaying investment in health and education. We have to pursue those at the same time, and this won’t be easy.”
"If we have to tax a little bit more, so be it. If we have to borrow a bit more for the really tremendous investments, then we should do that." His words come as the country grapples with a cost-of-living crisis and the UK is facing the highest taxes relative to income since the Second World War. The government is also under pressure, from some quarters, to cut taxes.
Lord Stern wrote a ground-breaking report in 2006 on climate change for the government, then led by Prime Minister Tony Blair. He delivered an updated version for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021. He is optimistic that a tipping point in key green technologies - including energy generation, car batteries and fertilizer manufacture - is achievable within a few years, with artificial intelligence playing a key role.
Lord Browne, a former chief executive of BP who now heads up a private equity fund that invests in firms that reduce greenhouse gases, wants more state help for businesses. He is urging the government to take inspiration from across the Atlantic. "I will give the US an A-grade for the Inflation Reduction Act, that's pretty dramatic," Lord Browne says. "It's nothing like enough, but it's a great start and it's made people notice."
But some UK Ministers, including former Business Secretary Grant Shapps, who now heads up the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, have been critical of President Biden's move. They have been concerned that it gives US businesses an unfair advantage. Such subsidies are typically financed by tax revenue or borrowing. However, there is already one source of tax cash that could be channelled better: the current windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas production. It would only be right that producers should pay over a slice of the unforeseen profits earned on assets that are ultimately owned by the nation. These revenues should be earmarked to help renewable specialists who are developing new energies.
But Lord Brown is concerned that with so many issues to consider, such as securing the UK's energy supply, environmental concerns may have slipped from the forefront of policymakers' minds. "Government ministers are preoccupied with a rediscovery of inflation and security," he said. "It is first keeping the lights on, energy security. Secondly, affordability. And third is climate. Now, you should be able to do all three things at once but it's very theoretical to expect that people do focus on three objectives simultaneously.
Speaking at the COP 27 climate meeting last year, however, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the energy crisis was a reason to accelerate the energy transition. In a statement, the government claimed the UK is "leading the world on tackling climate change with policies having supported 68,000 green jobs since 2020."
But ramping up the role of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in climate action might need some difficult conversations. Pollsters Ipsos found that while people are still very concerned about climate change, they are now more focused on inflation, the economy and public services. Voters are keen to do the right thing - but maybe less enthusiastic about funding change at the moment.
Adapted from BBC News, 13th February 2023
