A TRULY ROYAL MINT EXPERIENCE

Coin Update photo

A few readers have written in recently to recount their visits to the Royal Mint in Wales, and it brought back fond memories of my own visit there in 2016, just after the The Royal Mint Experience tour first opened.

A friend and I were visiting London and we set aside a day for the excursion to Wales. We took the train from London to Pontyclun, which has the nearest train station to the Royal Mint, which is located in an industrial park in nearby Llantrisant. From Pontyclun we took a local bus to the stop nearest to the industrial park and then walked ten minutes or so to the Royal Mint. To keep things in perspective, Llantrisant is a small town, and Pontyclun is a smaller village.

Visitors are well-provided for and are hardly inconvenienced by the fact that the mint complex is a top security level facility. The tour itself is very informative, but visitors should keep in mind that their only exposure to the actual production area is viewing it through a plexiglass window.

The chance to buy a ticket to strike a coin yourself (pound coins were being struck when I visited) allows you to press a button to operate a special press located in the tour area. Had my tour been less well-attended, I might have begged the press attendant to let me create an off-center or double struck coin, although I am not optimistic that I would have been accommodated. As I recall, the pound coins we struck had a limited-edition reverse design, and some silver coins offered in the gift shop were only available there at the mint.

Our visit to the Royal Mint and the gift shop lasted until just before closing time, and after a long day we figured we would skip the bus and treat ourselves to a taxi back to Pontyclun. Someone at the visitors' center kindly called a local cab for us. After waiting a while we asked them to call the taxi company to check on our cab, and they were told that there was a large delay due to it being "rush hour". Now, this was Wales, and I was trying to envision what rush hour might look like in this bucolic region. In any case, with the mint about to close, we headed outside to wait for our taxi that might or might not show up.

As we waited outside, a mint employee who had learned of our situation approached us and insisted that we let her drive us back to Pontyclun. We were taken aback by her generosity, and it seemed almost a source of embarrassment to her that we might be left stranded there. We accepted her offer, and we enjoyed some very insightful conversation on the ride back.

This trip was just weeks after the historic Brexit vote, and she provided some very spirited commentary on the issue and the key players; her position was that membership in the EU was a financial net gain for Wales, and that Wales received a level of recognition and respect that was not afforded by the UK government. When we reached Pontyclun it was dinnertime and she recommended a couple restaurants and refused to accept any money for "petrol".

When traveling in Europe my friend I are firm believers in the idea that "getting there is half the fun." In this particular case, "getting out of there" provided one of the most memorable experiences as we found that the Welsh people are unbelievably nice.

To read the 2016 Coin Update article, see:
Grand Opening: "Royal Mint Experience" Visitor Center Welcomes Coin Enthusiasts and Friends (http://news.coinupdate.com/preview-royal-mint-experience-visitor-center-welcomes-coin-enthusiasts-and-friends/)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
ROYAL MINT EXPERIENCE CENTER OPENS (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n21a33.html)
ROYAL MINT COIN SCULPTURES (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n20a44.html)
MORE ON THE ROYAL MINT EXPERIENCE EXHIBITS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n21a20.html)

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