Royal Mint Museum logo

Close

Newsletter: April 2026

Welcome to the April edition of the Royal Mint Museum Newsletter. As spring unfolds, we are pleased to share news from across our work with children and schools, the numismatic community and our colleagues at The Royal Mint.

Short Story Competition Update

Our children’s short story writing competition has now closed, marking the end of our most successful year so far. We received close to 5,000 entries from children across the UK, all aged between 7 and 11.

Graphic design to represent the gold theme for the Royal Mint Museum Short Story competition featuring melted gold being poured into crucibles and gold coins

Now in its sixth year, the competition invited young writers to prepare an original story of up to 500 words inspired by this year’s theme, Gold. From hidden treasure and glittering hoards to secret vaults and shimmering adventures, it has been a pleasure to see children interpret the theme in such creative and surprising ways.

As part of the judging process, we recently held a short story reading day at the Museum. Alongside the Museum team, sixteen colleagues from The Royal Mint generously gave their time to help read the imaginative entries. The stories took us on adventures involving treasure maps, dragons, magpies, coins, recycling, penguins and many subjects besides. We had a wonderful time reading them all and extend our thanks to everyone who entered.

A group of people sat at tables reading stories printed out on A4 paper

Story reading and judging will continue, with winners announced on our website in May. The overall winner will receive a gold coin, £5000 for their school or local library and the opportunity to have their story professionally illustrated.

If you have any questions, please contact:storycompetition@royalmintmuseum.org.uk

 

Strengthening links across the numismatic community

Here at the Museum, we remain firmly committed to supporting societies and community organisations that promote the study of coins and medals through collaboration, research and shared expertise. At a time when many long-established numismatic societies across the UK have sadly closed, opportunities to meet in person, share knowledge and build friendships are especially valuable.

Attendees of the British Association of Numismatic Societies Congress outside a hotel in Ireland

To support this work, three members of our team, Chris Barker, Susan Sandford and Virginia Porter, recently spent time in Ireland strengthening links within the numismatic community.

At the Ulster Museum in Belfast, Susan spoke at a free public event hosted by the Numismatic Society of Ireland Northern Branch in partnership with National Museums NI. Drawing on her work with the Museum’s collections and archives, Susan shared her experiences with both an in-person audience and online attendees.

A POV shot from behind the speakers podium at Ulster Museum

The following weekend, Chris and Susan presented papers at the British Association of Numismatic Societies 73rd Annual Congress in Dublin. Susan revealed the working life of Ernest Clinkscales, a nineteenth century employee at The Royal Mint, while Chris explored the story of Frances Madge Kitchener, a talented artist who nearly became Britain’s first female coin designer.

Chris Barker standing behind a lectern giving a talk at the British Association of Numismatic Societies Congress

Our thanks go to members of both branches of the Numismatic Society of Ireland for their hospitality and enthusiasm.

Are you a member of a numismatic society or coin club? If you are do please be in touch. We would love to hear from you and explore how we can support your work.

Royal Mint Strategy Festival

This month we were invited to take part in the Royal Mint Strategy Festival, an opportunity to showcase the Museum’s work to colleagues from across the business and to talk about our plans for the year ahead. It was a chance to reflect on our progress and to share where we are heading next.

At our stall, we highlighted some of our most valued outreach work, including the Museum’s Reminiscence Boxes, which are sent to care homes across the country, and have now reached almost 2,000 loans. We also spoke about our free virtual visits offered to schools nationwide.

Members of the Museum Team standing behind a table full of books and pictures relating to the history of the Royal Mint, with a member of the team preparing to strike a coin using a medieval hammer and tools.

We shared photograph books documenting the history of the Mint during its time in Wales and invited colleagues to help us identify the people pictured. The festival atmosphere was lively and hands-on, and colleagues were able to channel their inner medieval moneyer by striking a coin by hand.

The Strategy Festival showed how work across the Royal Mint connects to our shared goals. We were delighted to take part and to help colleagues discover how the Museum contributes to that bigger picture.

back to top