Sarner Appointed to Design and Build the Royal Mint Experience Upgrade
Sarner is delighted to announce its appointment via a competitive tender to design and build an exciting upgrade to the Royal Mint Experience in Wales. This project, which highlights the rich history, craftsmanship, and evolution of The Royal Mint, is being carried out in phases, with the completion of the first phase this month marking a significant milestone in the development of the upgraded visitor experience.
As one of Britain’s oldest businesses and one of the oldest manufacturers in the world, The Royal Mint boasts a 1,100-year legacy in making, minting, and crafting precious metal items. Over the centuries, The Royal Mint has made coins for the British monarchy and produced commemorative and bullion coins admired worldwide.
In 2016 The Royal Mint opened a visitor centre, The Royal Mint Experience offering visitors the chance to explore the history of coin-making at the heart of The Royal Mint site. The current upgrade of the Royal Mint Experience explores The Royal Mint’s evolving product offering and introduces visitors to its new business ventures, ensuring that the exhibition evolves in line with The Royal Mint’s dynamic and forward-looking vision.
The goal of the first phase is to create a thought-provoking space that brings The Royal Mint’s fascinating history to life while celebrating its ongoing legacy. The new experience is housed in the Circulating Coin Press room, an area over 100 metres long – roughly the size of a football pitch – where every coin in our pockets has been made. For the first time since the Royal Mint Experience opened, visitors will now have the exciting opportunity to step onto the factory floor as part of their tour.
The new experience offers a sensory journey, providing visitors with authentic opportunities to engage with the designs, materials, technical processes, and innovations involved in coin production through a series of interactive exhibits. Immersive audio experiences bring the factory’s sounds to life, allowing visitors to hear the rhythmic hum of circulating coins being minted and compare it with the slower, more methodical sound of commemorative coins being produced.
After having the opportunity to handle some of the real dies used to create the coins, visitors can try their hand at identifying any imperfections in a batch of coins at the inspection table, just as the Mint’s skilled workers do as part of their meticulous process to ensure the perfection of every coin.
The interactive “Guess the Weight” challenge invites visitors to estimate the value of various bullion coins based on their weight, offering a fun and informative way to explore the value of precious metals. Guests can also get an up-close look at the technology behind the Mint’s operations, including the co-bot, a robot once used to carefully transfer coins from the press to the colour printer. Additionally, packing robots are on display, demonstrating how coins are meticulously packaged for shipping and storage.
The new experience also highlights The Royal Mint’s forward-thinking approach to sustainability. In partnership with Canadian clean-tech company Excir, the Mint now uses an innovative process to extract precious metals from e-waste, giving new life to materials that would otherwise be discarded. The gold recovered from the printed circuit boards found in everyday e-waste such as laptop and mobile phones, forms the foundation of The Royal Mint’s latest venture – luxury beautifully crafted jewellery and high-end products under the brand 886 by The Royal Mint. Fusing heritage with innovation, part of what sets the 886 range apart is that it is forged and struck, just like the Mint’s coins, making it significantly stronger than traditional cast jewellery. The exhibition also underscores The Royal Mint’s commitment to utilising renewable and lower-carbon energy sources to power its operations, such as two purpose-built wind turbines and solar farm power, alongside a combined heat and power plant, now supplying up to 70% of its energy needs.
“This first phase represents an important step in reimagining the Royal Mint Experience,” said Caterina De Manuele, Creative Lead Designer at Sarner International. “Working closely with our client, we are thrilled to be part of a project that celebrates the centuries-old tradition of coin-making while highlighting the innovations shaping the future of The Royal Mint. By incorporating a multisensory, interactive approach, we’ve created an engaging environment where visitors can connect with The Royal Mint’s rich history while experiencing its dynamic evolution and commitment to sustainability.”
The Royal Mint Experience’s Visitor Attraction Manager, Dan Johnson, comments: “We are delighted to be working with Sarner International on the biggest upgrade The Royal Mint Experience has seen since its opening in 2016. The vision that the team at Sarner International put forward, combined with their collaborative approach to work, has led to a fantastic guest experience showcasing the very best of The Royal Mint as it exists today. Our primary focus is always on delivering the best possible experience for our customers, and the feedback we have had since re-opening has been exceptional.”
