Worth a Royal Mint?

Last week on the Oakeley blog we day-dreamed about all the things we could spend our many pennies on, should we be lucky enough to win the old lottery.

Well one thing we missed off the list was a gold coin….. and of course, it’s not just any old gold coin. News broke yesterday of the very special coins that will be produced to celebrate the arrival of the newest royal. There will be a whole variety of coins to celebrate the christening of Prince George at the end of this month, but the one we’ve all got our eyes (if not our wallets on) is the Prince George coin that is made from a kilo of fine gold! These very special (and enormous) coins will cost £50,000 each to buy, so if you’re after one you best make sure you choose your lottery numbers wisely this weekend! And little Prince George is the very first royal baby to be honoured with his very own christening coin.

by Christopher Neve/Surtsicna on Wiki Commons

And of course, the special Prince George coins will be struck at the Royal Mint which is based here in Wales. The history of the Royal Mint – the company which is responsible for designing, producing and distributing all the coins for the UK, dates back over 1,000 years, so it’s an historic institution. It was originally based in London, but in 1968 the entire operation moved to Llantrisant near Cardiff.

Sadly, you can’t visit the Royal Mint factory any more (they stopped tours a few years ago thanks to health and safety issues!) but there is loads of information on their website – about the special Prince George coin, and the history of the mint.

And all this means that the royal Prince’s Welsh connections continue. What a lucky little prince he is! You never know, maybe one day he’ll pop into the Oakeley for a pint!

To read the full story, and see pictures of the coins, click here

by umboody on sxc.hu