John Pinches Ltd was a London-based medallic business originally founded in the 1840s by Thomas Ryan Pinches and his younger brother John Pinches. In 1940, the company was registered as John Pinches (Medallists) Ltd. The company was sold to Franklin Mint of Philadelphia, USA, in 1969.

Edward Denison Ross was born in London in 1871. He was educated at Marlborough College and University College, London, before going to Paris and Strasbourg to study languages. In 1896 he was appointed Professor of Persian at University College London and remained there until 1901 when he took up an appointment as Principal of the Calcutta Madrasah Muslim College, the city's chief educational centre for teaching Arabic and Persian. In 1911, this role was combined with that of Officer in Charge of the Records of the Government of India and Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education. In 1914 Dension Ross returned to the UK and became First Assistant at the British Museum, working in the Prints and Drawings Department cataloguing the Stein Collection. Denison Ross became the first Director of the School of Oriental Studies (later the School of Oriental and African Studies) in 1916, remaining as such until his retirement in 1938.