Sarner International, a leading experiential design expert, has been chosen via a competitive tender to design and build an upgrade to the Royal Mint Experience in Wales, UK.
This project showcases The Royal Mint’s rich history, craftsmanship, and evolution. It is being executed in phases, and the completion of the first phase this month is a significant milestone in enhancing the visitor experience.
The Royal Mint, one of Britain’s oldest companies and a historic manufacturer globally, has a legacy spanning 1,100 years in the creation and minting of precious metal products. Throughout its long history, it has crafted coins for the British monarchy and produced commemorative and bullion coins that are celebrated worldwide.
Enhancing the visitor experience
In 2016, the Royal Mint opened a visitor centre called The Royal Mint Experience, which offers visitors the opportunity to explore the history of coin-making at the heart of the Royal Mint site.
The latest enhancement of the Royal Mint Experience showcases The Royal Mint’s expanding product range. It introduces visitors to its innovative business initiatives, ensuring that the exhibition aligns with The Royal Mint’s dynamic and progressive vision.
The first phase aims to establish an engaging environment that brings The Royal Mint’s captivating history to life while celebrating its lasting legacy. This new experience is situated in the Circulating Coin Press room, which spans over 100 metres – approximately the length of a football pitch – and is where every coin in our pockets has been produced.
For the first time since the Royal Mint Experience opened, guests can now step onto the factory floor during their tour. This new experience takes visitors on a sensory journey, allowing genuine engagement with the designs, materials, technical processes, and innovations related to coin production through various interactive exhibits.
Immersive audio experiences enliven the factory’s sounds, enabling visitors to listen to the rhythmic hum of circulating coins being minted and contrast it with the more methodical sound of commemorative coins being created.
Getting hands-on
After having the chance to handle real dies used to create the coins, visitors can attempt to identify 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 encourages visitors to estimate the weight of different bullion coins, providing an enjoyable and educational experience to learn about the worth of precious metals.
Attendees can also see the technology that powers the Mint’s operations, featuring the co-bot, a robot previously used to carefully transfer coins from the press to the colour printer. Plus, packing robots are showcased, illustrating the careful packaging process of coins for shipping and storage.
Sustainability
The new experience showcases The Royal Mint’s forward-thinking approach to sustainability. In partnership with Canadian clean-tech firm Excir, the Mint employs a cutting-edge method to recover precious metals from e-waste, revitalising materials that would otherwise be thrown away.
Gold reclaimed from e-waste like laptops and mobile phones underpins The Royal Mint’s new luxury jewellery brand, 886. Combining heritage with innovation, the 886 range is forged and struck like the Mint’s coins, resulting in stronger jewellery compared to traditional casting.
The exhibition also highlights The Royal Mint’s commitment to utilising renewable and lower-carbon energy sources for its operations, including two purpose-built wind turbines and solar farm power, along with a combined heat and power plant that now supplies 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, adds: “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.”
Sarner International also recently worked on a new multisensory immersive experience at Klimahaus Bremerhaven, Germany, which takes guests on an engaging journey through extreme weather phenomena.
