The Royal Mint Experience!

After a warm night in a Premier Inn room for four, we all woke around 7. Still full from our late night pizza, the prospect of a full English was a little stomach churning, but we made our way next-door for breakfast anyway!

Hayden made his way through a mountain of toast, Manda and I had a cooked breakfast, and Henry had a bit of toast. It turned out later he really wasn't feeling well.

With breakfast over, we vacated our room and drove the 5 minutes up the road to The Royal Mint. We wanted to check it out before our booked tour at 1pm. It was fairly empty, so we looked around the shop, only to discover a brand new Peter Rabbit 50p coin was being released today. Collectors will know they release various different priced coins. I bought one for Henry, uncirculated, so £10 for a 50p coin!!!

They were able to squeeze us in on the 11.30 tour. Henry was very off colour, so he had some painkillers for his headache and temperature and we waited for our tour.

It was fascinating hearing how many coins are made, what they're made of, where in the world they make coins for. We saw them being made, surrounded by bucket loads of hundreds of thousands of coins. All through a glass screen. We had already been through security before we went in. Then we came to the important bit. We were able to strike our own coin - a brand new 2017 £1 coin. So we all did it, WE MADE MONEY, and now have a really special coin for our collections.

The end of the tour was a detailed exhibition with loads of coin facts, old and new, and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. When we came out, the designer of the Peter Rabbit and other Beatrix Potter coins, Emma Noble was at the Mint and happy to sign the coins (the cardboard surrounds). Well, I just couldn't miss this opportunity so got the coin I had bought for Henry signed....then bought two more (one each for Dan & Mollie) and got those signed too. We decided that really was a unique memento and probably increased their value to nearer the £10 I had paid!!!

Henry had picked up a bit as we went round and seemed to enjoy it. Manda and I REALLY enjoyed our day!!

The long drive home, I have to thank Manda for. I kindly chatted to her the whole way, and I know she appreciated it lots ;-) it was over 3 hours. Poor Manda.

We are staying over at Manda's tonight and then driving home tomorrow.

Its been a lovely couple of days with my little sister and youngest nephew. Next on our list is Loughton, Essex....where the notes are printed - if they allow visitors!