Newsletter: April 2025
Welcome to the latest edition of the Royal Mint Museum Newsletter. The Royal Mint Museum team embarked on exciting new projects in April. Read on to find out more.
A new look to the factory tour
Visitors to The Royal Mint Experience will embark on a journey into the future through a brand-new tour which launched last month.
The interactive experience marks an exciting chapter of transformation, offering visitors a glimpse into the pioneering innovations shaping the modern Royal Mint. From extracting precious metals from electronic waste to the creation of luxury jewellery, visitors will explore how the Mint is evolving and developing, whilst staying true to its historic primary purpose.
For more information, and to book tickets, visit The Royal Mint Experience | The Royal Mint
Maundy Money podcast interview
In preparation for series two of the Royal Mint Museum’s podcast ‘The Secret Life of Coins’ an interview was conducted on the subject of Maundy Money.
The Royal Mint Museum has many specimens of the coins, but what we did not have, until recently, was a complete grouping of the coins as given to one recipient, nor did it have the associated items, such as a programme or an invitation relating to the ceremony itself. All that changed, however, through the generosity of Mrs Freda Meggs.
In 2016, as a 90 year-old, in recognition of her ‘exemplary Christian service’ in the diocese of Salisbury she was invited to the Royal Maundy service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. She received the special sets of coins personally from Elizabeth II, nine complete sets added up to 90 pence, the age of the late Queen in that year.
She kindly left the coins and the associated letters, programme, newspapers clippings and photographs relating to the service to the Royal Mint Museum in her will and her son, Bob Meggs, was good enough to talk about this generous bequest, and his mother’s extraordinary life, to form part of our upcoming podcast. Items from her generous gift are currently on display in The Royal Mint Experience.
Work placement
This month we were joined by Jessie, a work experience student who had been hoping to find out a little bit more about what goes on behind the scenes of a museum. Jessie shadowed members of the team throughout the week, working with our Education Manager, Amy, to deliver a schools session, our Collections Access Officer, Susan, to catalogue master tooling in the Museum store, and our Engagement Officer, David, to uncover a counterfeit coin. Jessie had this to say about her experience:
'Undertaking work experience at the Royal Mint Museum was such an educational and exciting experience. I learnt so much and loved working with various members of the Museum team, and it helped me understand the different roles required for a museum to function. I feel very privileged to have been able to see what happens behind the scenes of such a historical institution.'
A huge thanks to Jessie from the whole team for her invaluable help across the week!
A New Reminiscence Box Milestone
The Royal Mint Museum Reminiscence Box project is an opportunity for those living in residential care to interact with a part of our Museum collection and share memories from their lives. The box is an activity resource, containing genuine and replica items, audio-description and storytelling, and an activity guidance for care workers. We loan the boxes, completely free of charge, to care homes, day centres, community groups, hospital wards and dementia groups.
The Royal Mint Museum team reached a total of 1,500 Reminiscence Box loans in April. Our 1,500th loan went to Strathmore Lodge Care Home in St Albans. You can see where all of our boxes have been on this map: https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/collection/borrowabox/map/
To borrow a box get in touch with our team by contacting us at borrowabox@royalmintmuseum.org.uk