Wales so closed in 1908; since then, although banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland continue to have the right to issue banknotes in their own countries, the Bank of England has a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in Wales. The Commercial Bank of Wales, established in Cardiff by Sir Julian Hodge in 1971, was taken over by the Bank of Scotland in 1988 and absorbed into its parent company in 2002. The Royal Mint, who issue the coinage circulated through the whole of the UK, have been based at a single site in Llantrisant since 1980. Since decimalisation, in 1971,
Royal Mint years after its announcement the now named "Royal Mint Experience" opened to the public at a final cost of £9 million. Included in the visitor centre an interactive museum, a view onto the factory floor, an education centre and a press whereby visitors can strike their own souvenir £1 coin. On display at the centre are more than 80,000 artefacts, including Olympic medals, a pattern coin of Edward VIII, a Janvier reducing machine and a selection of trial plates. In the same month the mint took in 48 tonnes of silver recovered from the shipwreck of the SS Gairsoppa which