Turns out the Melbourne Mint was about Gold for India

Last week I was in the Public Records of Victoria (PROV) looking at records of the Melbourne mint. My substack about the Sydney mint by rights should come first, but I’m fresh-ish off the plane so I’m doing this one first. It was a bit extravagant building two mints in Australia. As I flicked through the massive file of equipment to order and repair I wondered why they built another one. I’d assumed it was just that Melbourne was much closer to where most of the gold turned out to be. Image source: City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection. I got it here. And then I found a report by Edward Ward, Deputy Master of the Sydney Mint. It was one of those quietly boastful reports that said look at what a great job I’ve been doing running the mint. It is profitable. We should get another one of these. But also because India will probably need gold soon. A lot of gold. While the Sydney mint was doing fine minting sovereigns to export to London and sell to Australian banks, if (as Ward…