Born in France, he emigrated to England and became chief engraver to the Royal Mint in 1633 and is credited with the invention of the coining-press.
He was born Nicolas Briot at Damblain, in Lorraine, in the Vosges department of France, a frontier town famous for its bellfounding and metalworking industries.
This established his reputation, when he was given 'power and authority to frame and engrave the first designs and effigies of the king's image ... to serve in coins of gold and silver'.
On the death of Sir John Foulis, Master of the Mint in Scotland, Briot was appointed to the office in 1635, and superintended the Scottish coinage for several years.
On the outbreak of the English Civil War he followed Charles I to York and Oxford; 'he took possession of the punches, roller instruments, and coining apparatus at the Tower, by order of his Majesty, and had them removed, trussed up in saddles, at the hazard of his life, for the purpose of continuing the coining operations in the cause of the King'.