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 Canadian Mint Olympic coins Royal Canadian Mint Olympic coins Since the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the Royal Canadian Mint has struck Summer and Winter Olympic coins to mark Games held in Canada. Most numismatists agree that the first true numismatic collection was the Olympic Five and Ten Dollar coins for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Starting in February 1973, the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) engaged in a very ambitious program. At the behest of the federal government, led by then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, it was agreed that these coins would help finance and commemorate the 1976 Summer Olympics. The plan was to have