Newsletter: August 2022

Moving objects to the store

It was all hands on deck this month as the team worked together to move objects into our new store. In one day the team moved over 500 objects ranging from framed artwork to delicate scientific equipment. These seemingly random items tell the lesser known, but nonetheless important, stories from the history of the Royal Mint, such as a bronze duck, created to test new casting methods, or two heavy metal crowns removed from the top of lampposts when the Mint left its site on Tower Hill in London. It was a very tiring day but an incredibly useful process for the team, some of whom do not usually work directly with the collection. One of our intrepid helpers said ‘I learned more about the collection today than I have in the last two years!’ Follow our social channels for more information and photographs of these objects in the coming weeks.

Social History Curators Group

We are extremely proud to announce that our Project Co-ordinator, Bethan James, has been elected as a new Trustee of Social History Curators Group. This group was formed to improve the status and provision of social history in museums and the standards of collections, research, display and interpretation. It is a registered charitable incorporated organisation with an elected committee of 12 Trustees and a written constitution. All Trustees work on a voluntary basis and usually undertake a particular role.

Beth said ‘I'm very much looking forward to meeting new people, learning a new role and hopefully benefiting the organisation.’

Work experience placement

At the end of August we hosted our first work experience placement since the pandemic. Jack, an A-level student interested in doing history at university, spent four days shadowing the various roles undertaken by the Museum team.

During his time with us Jack was able to gain a behind the scenes view of our work, history, collections, outreach programmes and was even able to hold some newly struck overseas coins. Watch this space for a blog about his experiences with us. If you are interested in undertaking a placement with us please get in touch via our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you!

Filming in the factory

As part of an exciting new project to explain and promote the work of the Royal Mint to 11-14 year olds we collaborated with Huw James, film maker, content creator and science communicator, and Fran Scott, TV presenter, science and engineering communicator and demo developer, to carry out filming in the factory where coins are produced.

In these films Fran will learn along with the audience as she asks important questions like ‘How many coins can you strike in a minute?’ and ‘How do coins get to where they need to be?’

The films will be used to help teachers and pupils explore links to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects within the Mint and cover a range of topics from designing coins, tool making, coin striking, and logistics.

Keep following us for more information about these videos later on in the year.

YouTube channel

Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel yet? From the beginning of September we will be releasing weekly content about our collection and the stories it can tell. We will be looking in more depth at some familiar coin designs and showing you more of the rare and wonderful objects we have in our care.