The Royal Mint is to launch a gold-backed exchange-traded commodity, ETC, claiming it will be the first sovereign mint in Europe to do so.

Anticipated to be available in the UK, Italy, and Germany from early 2020, the product will be launched via exchange-traded fund infrastructure provider, HANetf.

All the gold associated with the fund will be stored in The Royal Mint’s vault – one of the UK’s most secure sites and guarded round the clock, according to the Mint.

“For thousands of years, gold has been recognised worldwide as the ultimate means of trading and storing wealth,” said The Royal Mint’s chief executive Anne Jessop.

The launch is the UK government-owned mint’s first financially listed product, and part of its strategy to “reinvent” what it means to be a mint in the modern age.

Between 1999 and 2002, the then-Labour government sold off about half of Britain’s gold reserve when prices were at a 20-year low.

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