Newsletter: April 2024
The Tower of London
This month our Engagement and Information Officer, David, formed part of a panel of speakers at a series of Royal Mint events at the Tower of London. The Tower is the ancestral home of the Royal Mint, where coins for the nation were struck for over five hundred years, from 1279 through until our departure in 1810. Within the walls of the Tower came major innovations in coins and precious metals, including the Mint’s first regular issue of gold coins in the fourteenth century and the introduction of mechanisation in the seventeenth century. These points of progress formed the basis of David’s talk, which covered the Mint’s history in the Tower just a stone’s throw away from the very rooms in which these innovations took place. The Royal Mint Museum is always grateful for the opportunity to tell the story and history of the organisation and especially so in such a prestigious setting.
Definitive coins of Charles III
In the development of His Majesty The King's first definitive coins, The Royal Mint worked closely with the RSPB to create eight new designs depicting iconic UK species of flora and fauna. Earlier this week, our Information and Research Manager, Chris Barker, was delighted to attend RSPB Scotland's annual conference to speak about the coins and how they have been designed to raise awareness of the importance of conservation and reflect His Majesty's passion for nature and wildlife.
Reading event
The Museum’s annual short story competition for children aged 8 to 11 closed a few weeks ago. This year’s topic was Coins and the Sea, tying in with our upcoming temporary exhibition of the same title.
This year we received the most entries we have ever had in the four years since the competition started. We had 1,121 stories from all across the UK, giving us the difficult task of choosing a shortlist of ten.
We held a reading day and invited our colleagues from across the organisation to help, with the promise of free tea and biscuits. We managed to read all 1,121 stories in one day and compile our shortlist to send to our official competition judge, historian, author and podcaster Gregg Jenner.
Johanna Lucretia
At the beginning of this month our intrepid podcast team were privileged to go on a short voyage on board the Johanna Lucretia, the only UK flagged topsail schooner in sail training. JL, as she is affectionately called by her crew, is sailed by the Island Trust, a charity which provides life-enhancing, residential and day-sailing activities for young people with special needs, disabilities and those experiencing hardship and deprivation.
We were delighted to be invited onto an early season sailing with senior crew and trainees who were kind enough to share their stories about life at sea, show us how they haul the sheets (ropes) to tack the sails and give us a glimpse into the ways that sail training can change lives. Despite the rain and cold, spirits were high and there may have been a few sea shanties! If you want to find out more you will be able to hear our adventure as part of the Coins and the Sea podcast launching in June.
