Welcome to sohomint.info
We are here with a thoroughly modern web site to celebrate the achievements of Matthew Boulton who died two hundred years ago in August 1809.
But a modern website is no anachronism; Matthew Boulton was at the leading edge of technology and innovation in his own time.
So here, as a tribute to a great man, we will look at Matthew Boulton, and the Soho Mint; how Mr Boulton fitted into the great scheme of things, how the Mint was established and worked, and what it produced.
The world's first thoroughly modern money.
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The latest update was on Wednesday 1st July 2009.
In keeping with Matthew Boulton's place at the forefront of developments in his own time, you can now keep up to date with developments on sohomint.info using Twitter! Whether you simply follow the updates here on the website, or by setting up your own RSS feed, you will see the latest, first. Go to Mr Boulton on Twitter for more details.
The narrative description of the pages added has now been transferred to a new page: Highly Recommended gives a quick description of many of our most popular features.
To make it easier to see what's what, a SITE MAP appears on the navigation bar above. You can see this from every page, and the links on it will allow easy, direct, navigation to every other page.
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Four new pages have been added recently.
Placing the Soho Mint into the context of the Soho complex as a whole has never been easy, since the complete demolition of the buildings in the 1860s. George Demidowicz has researched the relationships between sites and space, and his Reconstruction makes everything clear.
The story of the Monneron Brothers, Merchants of Paris, and their various tokens is a fascinating one. Monnerons Issued! is the detailed account, by Mish Webster, of what they produced, and why. Though not new, Monnerons Banned! follows on naturally, detailing the unpleasant consequences of a decree by the French National Assembly in 1792, a measure aimed specifically at Boulton's tokens for the Monnerons. Both papers are in The Tokens section.
Soho's USPs are listed by Matthew Boulton himself; eleven advantages which his machinery would bring to minting coins for the British Government. This is in The Mint section.
In The Man section, we look at the influence of Boulton's social conscience, with a transcript of the Rules governing the Soho Insurance Society, an early form of unemployment insurance.
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As you will see, the website is still very much a work in progress. More items will be added as they become available, but in the meantime please forgive us our deficiencies! We hope to see you back, soon.