Newsletter: February 2022

Exhibitions

On 6th February the Royal Mint Museum was pleased to announce the opening of our new exhibition at the Royal Mint Experience: Happy and Glorious, a Celebration of Royal Jubilees. Opened to coincide with the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, and the celebration of 70 years of her reign, the exhibition explores the evolution of Jubilees throughout British history through a variety of objects and images.

The reign of the Queen has now seen the celebration of more Royal Jubilees than for any other British monarch. Beginning with her Silver Jubilee in 1977, and now in 2022 reaching an unprecedented Platinum Jubilee, these milestones have provided welcome opportunities for the nation to celebrate a truly remarkable reign.

As our Platinum Jubilee exhibition arrives, it replaces our previous display ‘Remembering Decimalisation’. Fortunately, you can now explore it in digital form on our website. Watch public information videos, reproduced with permission of the BBC, or perhaps you’d like to check your conversions from ‘old’ to ‘new’ money using the decimal convertor? We hope you enjoy this journey back in time to the 1970s!

Money Talks

Behind the scenes this month our Collections team has been hard at work packaging items for loan to an upcoming exhibition at Leeds City Museum. ‘Money Talks’ explores everyday relationships between people and cash, and touches on diverse stories from different time periods from Leeds and around the world. If you are in the area, we recommend checking out this fascinating and varied display. Find out more on the Leeds City Museum website.

New acquisitions

This month we have several new additions to the Museum collection to share with you. The following medals were purchased to pursue the theme of Britannia and to add to the collection of material relating to Sir Isaac Newton.

Silver Queen Anne and the Battle of Saragossa medal by John Croker, 1710. Britannia welcomes the figure of Victory, who presents captured Spanish standards to the seated figure of Queen Anne.

Silver Isaac Newton medal, Newton lectures, 1967, by Toye, Kenning and Spencer which features a bust of Newton by the medallist John Croker.

Recently the Museum purchased a first edition copy of The Sixpence That Rolled Away by Louis MacNeice and illustrated by Edward Bawden, an artist with close links to the Royal Mint.

The Wearing Welsh Project

The Museum was recently invited to join a community art project delivered by celebrated Welsh textile artist Haf Weighton. The project aimed to connect school pupils and college students in Rhondda Cynon Taff with staff from the local NHS trust to explore their connections to the Welsh language through collaborative artworks. As part of the project our Education Manager was invited to deliver a talk at the college, looking at Welsh identity through coin and medal designs from the Museum’s collection.

Podcasts and radio

In February members of the Museum team contributed to an article in Which? magazine. The article, which will soon be available online and on the Which? podcast, showcases the past, present and future of The Royal Mint. 

The Museum Director, Dr Kevin Clancy also took a star turn on Eddie Nestor’s BBC Radio London show about the 51st anniversary of decimalisation. For an expert and fascinating insight plus stories from the world of coins, have a listen on BBC Sounds. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bjywt3#t=52m45s