CREDIT cards made of real gold are being introduced for Britain’s mega rich.

Developers at the Royal Mint have been secretly working on the project.

They are looking at ways to make the cards work at cashpoints and usable for contactless payments.

The cards — said to cost around £3,000 each — are made of 18-carat gold and the signature of owners will be engraved on the back.

MasterCard is handling the technology to process payments.

The cards are already being offered to multi-millionaires.

A Royal Mint source said: “It’s in a development stage, and it still is very much hush-hush.

“The Royal Mint hopes to be the manufacturer of the card for some of their partners in the top end of the market  —  if they can make it work. The project should be ready within a year.”

The Royal Mint produces the UK’s coins and is owned by the Treasury.

A MasterCard source said: “Everyone’s chuffed it will have our logo on it.”

The Royal Mint confirmed it is trying to make “a precious metal payment card”.

MasterCard did not comment.