2026 Winners

Gold Short Story Competition

The Royal Mint Museum hosted a short story competition open to all 7- to 11-year-olds in the United Kingdom based around the topic of 'Gold'. Pupils were asked to write a creative short story of no more than 500 words on the theme. We received 4,760 entries and were truly impressed by the quality of the stories.

The winning entry was written by 7-year-old Marlowe Askew-Smith. Her delightful story 'The Gold Fox' is about a girl who makes a gold fox that comes to life and attracts the attention of a lonely king.

It charmed our guest judge Dan Thomas, King’s Assay Master, who said “I would read this to my own children. It’s an incredibly uplifting story that shows gold is precious to us all for many reasons other than its value.”

As part of Marlowe's prize, her story was illustrated by guest artist Laura K Sayers. Marlowe also won a gold coin for herself, £25 National Book Tokens and £5,000 worth of Peters equipment and books for her school library.

You can find all the winning stories below.