Newsletter: June 2026
June has been full of celebrations for the Royal Mint Museum team. Read our exciting updates here!
Gold Short-Story Presentation
If you missed it the first time around, we have a winner for the 2026 Royal Mint Museum Short Story Competition! Marlowe Askew-Smith was the grand winner for her short story, “The Gold Fox”. This month, the Museum team were delighted to present her with the prizes.
We held a presentation at the end of June, during which Marlowe received congratulatory messages from Museum Director Dr Kevin Clancy and artist Laura K Sayers.
Laura beautifully illustrated Marlowe’s story and, as well as receiving a framed copy of the story, Marlowe was also kindly given the original artwork for Perdita, the main character in The Gold Fox, by Laura.
In addition, Marlowe won a gold coin, National Book Tokens and £5,000 Peters vouchers for her school.
Congratulations again to Marlowe on her fantastic achievement!
You can read Marlowe’s story here.
The British Art Medal Society’s collection has arrived at the Royal Mint Museum!
The Royal Mint Museum has always promoted the study and the practice of medallic art, and our established collection contains numerous gems which can be found on our Collection Online. To help promote the discipline, members of Museum staff have served on the Council of the British Art Medal Society ever since it was formed in 1982 and the Society has done amazing work in commissioning artists to produce medals for sale to its members.
As a result of its work, the Society has developed a remarkable collection from some of the leading medallic artists of the day which had until now been housed within the British Museum. As redevelopment work at the British Museum begins to gather pace, this material was due to be without a home and the team at the Royal Mint Museum have stepped in to offer our services. Working with our Collection Manager, Sarah Tyley, Janet Larkin from the Society safely oversaw the move of the objects and the collection is now available to view by appointment for any who wishes to see it.
Carbon Literacy Awards
Our Collections Assistant Kelsie had the pleasure of joining the Royal Mint Sustainability team at the Carbon Literacy Project Awards in Manchester this month. The awards recognise organisations who are driving real progress on climate action, and we were proud to attend as part of our contribution to the Royal Mint’s ongoing sustainability initiatives.
The Royal Mint is now a Silver Status Carbon Literate Organisation, which is a reflection of the Carbon Literacy training that has taken place with staff across the Royal Mint site, including the Museum team. We’re always striving to make improvements to our working practices both as a charitable entity and as part of the Royal Mint.
To learn more about the Royal Mint’s vision of a Sustainable Future, visit: https://www.royalmint.com/sustainability/
Reminiscence Box Update
Our Reminiscence Box collection continues to be an exciting and innovative way of allowing people who might not have physical access to the Museum to engage with and gain from our collection. These boxes are loaned to care homes and similar organisations across the country, for free, and contain activity resources and audio-described replica items perfect for drawing out memories of how coins have been used across a lifetime.
This month, our Reminiscence box collection has been updated to include three new objects. This collection now includes a replica Sovereign ring, a photograph from the 1966 world cup, and even a scented Christmas Pudding with accompanying Christmas pudding recipe card. All of these items speak to the remarkable ways that coins have been used historically, and we hope they will make great additions to the Reminiscence Box activities.
If you would like to find out more about this work, get involved in sponsoring the project, or loan a box for your care home for free, then please contact us at: borrowabox@royalmintmuseum.org.uk.