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 of the public in the form of bars or coins. Historically the mint has refined its own metal, however under the advice of an 1848 Royal Commission the process was separated with the independent "Royal Mint Refinery" being purchased and operated by Anthony de Rothschild in 1852. The Rothschild family continued the refinery's management until it was sold to Engelhard in 1967, a year later the Royal Mint relocated to Wales and ceased their bullion bar interests until reviving the brand in 2015. Bullion bars produced by the mint are stamped with the original Royal Mint Refinery emblem and come