May 28, 2026

Thomas Wyon Junior Chief Engraver to the Royal Mint, 1815–1817 & Designer of Jersey's First Official Coinage

1792, Birmingham · 22/23 September 1817, Priory Farmhouse, Hastings · Buried: Christ Church, Southwark

missing image — 18 Pence Token Obverse
Jersey Arms, 1813
*Click to enlarge*

Life & Training

Jersey Coins

Design & Coinage

Empire & Foreign Coinage

Medals

Legacy

Phase	Date / Place	Event & Notes
Life & Training
Life	1792 Birmingham	Born in Birmingham, the eldest son of Thomas Wyon the Elder (1767–1830) and nephew of Peter Wyon (1767–1822). His father and uncle were then in partnership as die-engravers and medallists in Birmingham, occupied with the large provincial token coinage of the period — a commercial and technically demanding trade that formed the practical backdrop to Thomas Junior's early life. The Wyon family's Birmingham roots in die-engraving stretched back to George Wyon, the grandfather, making Thomas Junior the third generation of a dynasty that would continue at the Royal Mint until 1891.
Life	c. 1806 London	At the age of 14, apprenticed to his father, Thomas Wyon the Elder, who had by then moved from Birmingham to London and obtained the appointment of Chief Engraver of the King's Seals. He was taught the art of engraving on steel. He also received training from Nathaniel Marchant, gem-engraver and Associate of the Royal Academy, who was still working at the Mint and had ten more years to live. Marchant would later be succeeded in the post of Engraver of Seals by Thomas Senior upon Marchant's death in 1816. Marchant (1739–1816) was one of the finest gem-engravers of the period, celebrated for his intaglios and cameos. His influence on the young Thomas Wyon Junior's approach to portraiture in relief would have been considerable.
Life	c. 1808–1811 London	Joins the sculpture school of the Royal Academy, where he gains two silver prize medals — one in the antique class, one in the life class. In 1809, aged seventeen, he strikes his first medal: a piece presented to Lieutenant Pearce, RN. In 1810 he wins the gold medal of the Society of Arts for medal engraving; the die — representing a head of Isis — is purchased by the Society and used to strike its own prize medals thereafter. Winning the Society of Arts gold medal was a prestigious public recognition for an engraver still in his teens. The Isis die being adopted as the Society's own prize medal is a remarkable testament to its quality.
Life	20 Nov 1811 Royal Mint	Appointed Probationary (Probationer) Engraver to the Royal Mint. His early work at the Mint includes making the dies for the Bank of England and Bank of Ireland tokens (the famous wartime silver tokens of 1811–1816), along with L. Pingo and Marchant, and producing coinage dies for the British colonies and for Hanover. The Bank of England tokens — one shilling and sixpence, and three shillings — were emergency silver coinage issued to relieve the acute shortage of silver coin caused by the Napoleonic Wars. Wyon's role in producing their dies placed him at the centre of the most important emergency monetary operation in Britain since the Great Recoinage of 1696.
Life	13 Oct 1815 Royal Mint	Appointed Chief Engraver to the Royal Mint at the age of 23 — the youngest person ever to hold the post. The appointment came at a pivotal moment: the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in June 1815 had ended two decades of war, and a comprehensive reform of British coinage was now overdue and urgently needed.
Life	22/23 Sep 1817 Hastings	Dies of consumption at Priory Farmhouse, near Hastings, aged 25. He is described by the Dictionary of National Biography as "a modest and talented artist." Buried in the graveyard of Christ Church, Southwark. His younger brother, Benjamin Wyon (1802–1858), and his cousin, William Wyon (1795–1851), were also distinguished medallists and continued the family's association with the Mint and with seal-engraving. Thomas Wyon Junior's career lasted barely six years from his Mint appointment to his death, yet his output — in coinage, medals, seals, and colonial dies — was extraordinary. William Wyon was appointed Second Engraver of the Mint in 1816, the year before Thomas Junior's death, and succeeded to his duties; he would become Chief Engraver in 1828.
Jersey Coinage — The First Official Issue
Jersey	Context: The Wartime Coin Shortage	By 1812 the Napoleonic Wars had caused a severe shortage of silver coin throughout the British Isles. Jersey, a Crown Dependency supplying manpower and provisions to the military effort, was acutely affected. The island had previously relied on a mix of English coins, local copper tokens, and French currency for everyday commerce. An official silver token coinage, struck under Royal Mint authority, was determined to be the solution. The legend chosen for the obverse — TO FACILITATE TRADE — perfectly captures the practical emergency nature of these tokens. They were not permanent coinage but instruments of commerce, issued to fill a gap until normal monetary conditions could be restored.
Jersey	Order in Council 5 February 1813	The silver tokens were struck by the Royal Mint on the authority of an Order in Council from the Committee on Coins, dated 5 February 1813. Thomas Wyon Junior, still a Probationary Engraver at this stage (he would not be appointed Chief Engraver for another two years), designed both tokens. He placed the Jersey Arms on the obverse and a wreath of oak surrounding the denomination on the reverse. £10,000 worth of silver bullion was eventually requested for conversion into tokens. From February through June 1813, 2,535 pounds of silver were delivered to the Royal Mint for this purpose.
Jersey	18 Pence Token Silver, 1813	Obverse: the Arms of Jersey — the heater-shaped shield of three lions passant guardant — with the legend TO FACILITATE TRADE. Reverse: the denomination EIGHTEEN PENCE surrounded by an oak wreath, with the date 1813. Both obverse and reverse designed and the dies cut by Thomas Wyon Junior. This was the first official coinage minted specifically for Jersey. Mintage: In late March 1813, 4,842 eighteen-pence tokens were struck; a further 33,896 were struck in June. Total: approximately 38,738 pieces. Many catalogue sources (following Pridmore) quote a figure of 90,800, derived from a calculation based on the nominal value of tokens cited in the 1834 Jersey Orders of Council — but the Royal Mint striking records give the figures above. Weight: approximately 8.37 g. Silver. Diameter c. 28 mm.
Jersey	3 Shillings Token Silver, 1813	Obverse: the Arms of Jersey with the legend TO FACILITATE TRADE — the obverse design by Nathaniel Marchant, but the dies cut by Thomas Wyon Junior. Reverse: denomination THREE SHILLINGS surrounded by an oak wreath with the date 1813. Wyon both designed and cut the reverse dies. Mintage: 2,421 struck in late March 1813; a further 51,890 struck in June. Total: approximately 54,311 pieces. Again, many sources follow Pridmore's estimate of 45,400 based on the nominal value calculation. The Mint striking records indicate the higher figures given here.
Jersey	Redemption & Withdrawal	The 1813 tokens circulated in Jersey throughout the later years of the Napoleonic Wars and beyond. They were eventually called in for redemption by the States of Jersey. The 1834 Jersey Orders of Council recorded that £12,256/12/6 had been redeemed by the Committee, with £1,363/7/6 still outstanding and unredeemed. The tokens were never intended as a permanent coinage — they served their emergency purpose. Jersey would not receive a dedicated bronze penny and halfpenny series until William Wyon and Leonard Charles Wyon designed the later Victoria-era issues, decades after Thomas Junior's death.
British Coinage — Design & Engraving
Design	1816 The Great Recoinage	In 1816, as Chief Engraver, Wyon was responsible for the reverses of the new British silver coinage — half crown, shilling, and sixpence — designing them himself, while the obverse portraits of George III had been modelled by Benedetto Pistrucci and were adapted and engraved by Wyon. These coins, including the first modern sovereign of 1817, initiated the most comprehensive reform of British coinage since the Restoration. The half crown, shilling, and sixpence of 1816–1820 continued to be struck from Wyon's dies for several years after his death — a posthumous production run of considerable scale. His cousin William Wyon had been appointed Second Engraver in 1816 and took on the continuation of this work.
Design	1817 Maundy Money & Pattern Crown	In 1817 Wyon struck the Maundy money and began work on a pattern crown-piece — an ambitious design in direct creative competition with the great Italian engraver Thomas Simon's crown designs of an earlier era. Consumption was already weakening him; he did not live to complete this work. The pattern crown is documented in the DNB as one of his final projects. "Signs of consumption now began to appear, and Wyon — a modest and talented artist — died on 23 September 1817." — Dictionary of National Biography.
Design	Bank Tokens 1812–1816	Silver Bank of England and Bank of Ireland tokens — one shilling and sixpence, and three shillings — struck as emergency silver coinage during the monetary disruption of the Napoleonic Wars. The obverse designs were by Nathaniel Marchant; Wyon cut the dies and designed and cut the reverses of the 18-pence pieces. These are among the most technically accomplished small silver coins of the Regency period. The Bank of England tokens are well-known to collectors as a series spanning 1811–1816. Thomas Wyon Junior's involvement in them, alongside Marchant and Pingo, gave him a thorough grounding in emergency monetary coinage — directly relevant experience for the subsequent Jersey commission.
Empire & Foreign Coinage
Empire	1813, 1816 British Guiana	In 1813 and 1816, Wyon engraved the dies for the coinage issued for British Guiana in both silver and copper — small-denomination pieces for a remote colonial territory, but technically demanding work requiring adaptation to local monetary conventions.
Empire	1813–1815 Hanover	Engraved dies for the gold and silver Pistoles and Gulden for Hanover. It should be remembered that the Kings of Britain from George I to William IV inclusive — the House of Hanover — were also Dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Arch-Treasurers of the Holy Roman Empire, and Electors. The titles and form of government in Hanover changed considerably during this period, partly as a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars.
Empire	1815 France: Gold Twenty Francs	Wyon also cut dies for an unexpected commission — the gold Twenty Francs of 1815. This showed the bust of King Louis XVIII on the obverse and the arms of France on the reverse. These pieces — 871,581 of which were struck under Order in Council dated 10 May 1815 — were used to pay the troops serving under the Duke of Wellington during the Hundred Days campaign. This is a remarkable commission: a British Chief Engraver (or Probationary Engraver, depending on the exact date) cutting dies for French royal coinage to pay Wellington's army. It reflects the extraordinary monetary complexity of the Napoleonic era's closing months.
Empire	Ceylon, Ireland & Patterns	Wyon also cut dies for coins for Ceylon and Ireland, and engraved numerous dies for patterns for both British Imperial and British colonial coins — a rich body of work demonstrating the breadth of a Probationary and then Chief Engraver's responsibilities in this period.
Medals — Selected Works
Medals	1809 Pearce Medal	His first medallic work, struck aged 17: a medal presented to Lieutenant Pearce, RN — the earliest documented piece by Thomas Wyon Junior.
Medals	1810 Isis Medal	The die representing a head of Isis, which won the Society of Arts gold medal for engraving. The die was purchased by the Society and used thereafter to strike its own prize medals — a signal honour for a teenager.
Medals	1813–1814 Napoleonic War Medals	Manchester Pitt Club medal; Upper Canada Preserved medal; medals presented to North American Indian chiefs; medal of the Tsar of Russia struck during the visit of the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg to the Mint; Treaty of Paris medal (from his Peace Checking the Fury of War design, published by Rundell & Co., which had won the Society of Arts gold medal); centenary of the accession of the House of Brunswick; Liverpool Pitt Club medal.
Medals	1815 Waterloo Medal	The official British Waterloo Medal — the first campaign medal ever awarded to all surviving participants of a single engagement. Obverse: a laureate head of the Prince Regent facing left, with T. WYON JUN. S. below the truncation. Reverse: Victory seated on a plinth inscribed WATERLOO, the word WELLINGTON above, and JUNE 18/1815 in the exergue. 38,500 medals were awarded from 39,000 produced. The Waterloo Medal is Wyon's most historically significant single work and his most widely distributed. Signed T. WYON JUN. S. (the S. for Sculpsit) on the obverse — his clearest surviving signature in the field. Specimens are held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Collection, and Museums Victoria.
Medals	1812 Wellington & Naval College	Medal of Wellington (1812); medal for the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth (1812); the Wooldridge medal (1812). These commissions in the year before his Probationary Engraver work for Jersey demonstrate the simultaneous private and official tracks of his career.
Medals	1817 Waterloo Bridge	A medal marking the opening of Waterloo Bridge — his last known medallic work before his death in September 1817. The bridge itself was opened in June 1817, only three months before his death.
Legacy
Legacy	The First Jersey Coinage	Thomas Wyon Junior's 1813 silver tokens were the first official coinage struck specifically for the Island of Jersey — pre-dating the dedicated bronze penny and halfpenny series by more than three decades. The heater-shaped shield of Jersey Arms that he placed on their obverse established the visual vocabulary that Leonard Charles Wyon would develop into the long-running bronze series of 1866–1894, and which endured in adapted form until 1983.
Legacy	A Prodigy Cut Short	Thomas Wyon Junior was Chief Engraver for barely two years, and active at the Mint for only six. Yet in that time he produced dies for two countries' emergency token coinages, the first official Jersey coinage, the first modern British silver coinage, coinage for Hanover, British Guiana, Ceylon, Ireland, and France, the official Waterloo Medal, and dozens of institutional medals. His is one of the most compressed and prolific careers in the history of British die-engraving.
Legacy	The Penny Black Connection	Wyon's engraving of Queen Victoria for the City of London medal was used as the design basis for the Penny Black — the world's first adhesive postage stamp, issued in 1840. Though Wyon was long dead by then, his portrait survived him as the foundation of an object that revolutionised communications worldwide. The engraving used was Wyon's 1837 City of London medal portrait of the young Victoria — itself one of the earliest medallic portraits of the new Queen. Examples of the medal, in silver and bronze, are held in the British Postal Museum & Archive (R. M. Phillips Collection).
Legacy	The Wyon Family	Thomas Junior's death left his cousin William Wyon (1795–1851) as the family's representative at the Mint — William had been appointed Second Engraver in 1816 and would go on to become Chief Engraver in 1828 and the greatest British coin engraver of the nineteenth century. Thomas Junior's younger brother Benjamin Wyon (1802–1858) became Chief Engraver of the Seals; his nephews Joseph Shepherd Wyon (1836–1873) and Alfred Benjamin Wyon (1837–1884) were also distinguished medallists. The dynasty Thomas Junior had helped begin at the Mint would continue until the death of Leonard Charles Wyon in 1891.

The Wyon Family — Engravers to the Royal Mint

Great-grandfather George Wyon Birmingham die-engraver; founded the family trade in the early 18th century

Father Thomas Wyon the Elder 1767–1830 · Chief Engraver of the King's Seals from 1816; moved to London c. 1800

Uncle Peter Wyon 1767–1822 · Birmingham die-engraver; in partnership with Thomas the Elder until c. 1800

This page Thomas Wyon Junior 1792–1817 · Chief Engraver, Royal Mint, 1815–1817; designed Jersey's first official coinage

Cousin William Wyon RA 1795–1851 · Chief Engraver, Royal Mint, 1828–1851; Young Head of Victoria; Una and the Lion

Brother Benjamin Wyon 1802–1858 · Chief Engraver of the Seals from 1831

William's son Leonard Charles Wyon 1826–1891 · Modeller & Engraver, Royal Mint, 1851–1891; Bun Head penny; Jersey shield reverse

Biography — Full Account

Thomas Wyon Junior was born in Birmingham in 1792, at the period when his father Thomas and his uncle Peter Wyon were in partnership and busy with the large token coinage. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to his father, who by then had obtained the appointment of Chief Engraver of Seals. He also obtained training from Nathaniel Marchant, who in 1806 was still working at the Mint and had ten more years to live. Marchant was still working on coins before being dropped to Engraver of Seals, and died in 1816, being succeeded in that post by Thomas Wyon Senior.

Thomas Wyon Jr. joined the school of sculpture of the Royal Academy, where he obtained two silver prize medals. While only 16 he engraved his first medallic die in 1809, and in 1810 and again in 1811 was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Society of Arts. In the latter year he was appointed Probationer Engraver of the Mint and given the work of making the dies for the famous Bank of England and Bank of Ireland tokens, along with L. Pingo and Marchant. Finally on 13 October 1815 he was appointed, at the age of 23, Chief Engraver to the Mint.

It was obvious that a genius at this particular type of work had been discovered, and, like many geniuses, he packed a great amount of work into a short life, since he died of consumption at Hastings in September 1817. Among the great amounts of work for the coinage which he accomplished, apart from the many medals on which he was engaged, he was also responsible for the following:

Silver. Three Shillings and Eighteen Pence for the years from 1812 to 1816, the obverse design being by Marchant but the dies cut by Thomas Wyon Jr., who both designed and cut the reverses of the Eighteen Pence. These pieces are some of the Bank Tokens mentioned above.

Half Crown, Shilling and Sixpence for various years from 1816 to 1820, his dies being used after his death. The obverses of these pieces were designed by Pistrucci but Thomas Wyon Jr. engraved them and designed and engraved the reverses.

As stated earlier the obverse of the first Half Crown had been designed by Pistrucci and adapted by Thomas Wyon Jr. In 1813 and 1816 he engraved the dies for the coinage issued for British Guiana in silver and copper, and in 1813, 1814 and 1815 the dies for the gold and silver Pistoles and Gulden for Hanover. It should be remembered that our kings from George I to William IV inclusive (the House of Hanover) were Dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Arch-Treasurers of the Holy Roman Empire and Electors. The titles and form of government there changed over the period, due in part to the Napoleonic Wars.

Thomas Wyon Jr. also cut dies for coins for Ceylon, Ireland and Jersey and for an unexpected piece, the gold Twenty Francs of 1815. This showed the bust of Louis XVIII on the obverse and the arms of France on the reverse. These pieces, 871,581 of which were struck under Order in Council dated 10 May 1815, were used to pay the troops serving under the Duke of Wellington. Wyon engraved numerous dies for patterns for both the British Imperial and British Colonial coins.

Pistrucci & the George III Pattern Half Crown

In view of the criticism of Pistrucci's head of George III, one of the artist's patterns is of particular interest. It is for the obverse of a Half Crown, dated 181—, and shows the king with a half smile on his lips. Of this piece Pistrucci wrote:

Proof of the head of the Half Crown of George III, a work by T. Wyon, Chief-Engraver at the Mint, and retouched by me with the diamond point. This head was copied from one of my cameos preserved at the Mint, but was never issued, the puncheons of the said head, retouched by me, were burnt several times at the Mint. They are extremely rare, as although they resemble the Half Crowns in circulation, they differ in the face, which on the common coins is more morbid. Given to me by Mr. Pole. — B. Pistrucci.

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