Sales. A bit like the UK MoD taking on a weapon when the real market is to sell the weapon to other countries. It's a way for the UK government to support UK i

Sales. A bit like the UK MoD taking on a weapon when the real market is to sell the weapon to other countries. It's a way for the UK government to support UK industry. The Royal Mint is the world's leading exporter of currency selling to over 60 countries, and this is their sales pitch for the next 30 years. By securing the use of the technology in the coinage of the UK as early as possible, they are able to use that as a strong signal to other countries in the future who are assessing their coinage needs. The UK taking on this coin now, is a sales pitch. An effective one. Patents. The second part of why now is that they've patented all of this. The replacement cycle for coinage is long (30+ years), and if they fail to make significant sales in the next 15 years they are not going to be getting significant benefits from their patents. They need to get as many sales in the next 15 years as possible to have effectively used the period of exclusivity the patents granted.