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,
Birmingham Mint 5% of the business. A major product was copper tubing and fittings for the building industry, supplied under the MBL trade mark. Medals, slot machine tokens and gambling tokens were produced. In 1965 a consortium of the Mint, the Royal Mint and IMI achieved a growth in the export market. The Mint expanded to an adjacent site in 1967 but a reduction in orders from the Royal Mint immediately followed, apart from a large order for 1680 tons of bronze half-pence blanks and 466 tons of cupro-nickel 10-pence blanks, which were supplied to the Royal Mint in 1968–71 for the