I am suspecting that the British was the first to strike proof coins, except that I have no idea how long ago such coins was made possible...

Any clues?

This Info Page Says:

"The first proof set is that of George II in 1746, with four coins, the crown, halfcrown, shilling and sixpence, in a wedge-shaped case."

[Please pardon my correction but the past tense of Strike is Struck.. not striked ]

-Bobby

The British weren't the first to strike proofs though, as far as i can recall. I'm sure earlier ones exist. GD's you're man for an answer like this.

I think the earliest British proof coins are from the back end of the 1600s.

Do believe they had one sooner than that - I wanna say 1656 but will have to look it up. It was the UK though, but not a set.

Pretty good for off the cuff! According to Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins 1722-1977, the first coins that we would recognize as "proof" are the 1651 Commonwealth half crowns. Breen goes into some detail on what we mean by "proof." He allows that certain strikings of early presses as far back as the 1500s might meet our expectations. The upshot is that given that a PROOF coin is struck more than once and on specially prepared planchets, the first true proofs are gold crowns of Charles II.

I was thinking the late 1500's myself, i must have been thinking of something else. (No not milled).

The only reason why I said, it might be the British who could have minted the first proof coin is because Britain is the first country who lead the industrial revolution. Little did I expect that proof coins were minted much earlier

But not with coins - France actually led the pack in that regard. Except for striking Proofs of course

Those'd be the ones - thanks Mike. I was lookin all over for where I buried that tidbit of info - I don't own a Breen ya see

That was the country i was backing.

My own thoughts were directed to the silver Grand Ecu of Henri II (1558). What the French would term an `essai' (trial) but what we would probably accept as being a `proof'.

There were a number of such `essai' coins during that period.

All depends if you want to go by Breen's definition or not. :-)