Known for accelerating Allied efforts to read German naval messages, Alan Turing led a team at Bletchley park that eventually cracked the code to the Enigma machine. The Engima machine was a device that encrypted German messages, and without breaking it, it is thought that Britain and its allies might not have countered the German […]
“My coin has an error. One of the sides is upside down!” If you’ve had that thought when looking at certain coins, don’t worry you’re not alone. The “upside down coin” question is one of the most common we’re asked. In almost all cases, it’s never a mistake, but the alignment style decided by the […]
The Industrial Revolution rapidly gained pace during Queen Victoria’s reign all because of the power of steam. Victorian engineers developed bigger, faster and more powerful machines that could run whole factories. This led to a massive increase in the number of factories (particularly in textile factories or mills) in Britain. By 1870, over 100,000 steam […]
This year I’ve seen a huge range of coins issued to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, but I’ve never seen anything like this… In fact, there’s not been anything like this before in The Royal Mint’s 1,100-year history. Earlier today, The Royal Mint unveiled the largest coin it has ever produced. The gold coin, with a […]
Have you worked out your Christmas TV schedule yet? Is there a Bond movie on? Maybe you’ll just be tuning in to the Boxing Day football. None of it would have been possible without John Logie Baird. The Royal Mint issued a coin celebrating his life and achievements this year and it featured an exceptional […]
2018 marked the Centenary of the RAF. To honour the occasion The Royal Mint announced a brand new £2 coin. It featured the official badge of The Royal Air Force and, quite frankly, looked stunning. Each element of the design holds an interesting insight into the RAF. Find out the significance of each by clicking the […]
This year has seen many unexpected changes in the film industry with some anticipated cinema releases going straight to streaming platforms and others postponed entirely. But I don’t think any film has made quite as many headlines as the twice-postponed 25th James Bond film; No Time to Die. Which makes the coins released to celebrate […]
Don’t worry, you don’t actually need one today, but it wasn’t that long ago here in the UK that you did. Without one, you would be limited to owning just four gold coins issued after 1817. Unless you had a licence, but that wasn’t the easiest thing to obtain… The year it became illegal to […]
Late last year, The Royal Mint held the first ever historic coin auction in its 1,000 plus year history. The star of the show was meant to be an 1839 Una & the Lion £5 gold coin, which has been described as the “most beautiful of all English coins” and had an upper estimate of […]
With the modern Gold Sovereign celebrating its bicentenary, 2017 always promised to be a good year for the coin, but it surpassed all expectations. The 2017 Proof Sovereign To mark the bicentenary of the modern Sovereign, the 2017 Proof Sovereign returned to the original Gold Sovereign design first released back in 1817. The Royal Mint […]