Screw Press Medal

That the medal collection of the Royal Mint Museum should be dominated by the United Kingdom will perhaps come as no great surprise but the collection also contains a sizeable number of overseas medals and these include many on the theme of overseas mints.   There are visit medals, medals depicting mint buildings and of particular interest are those which focus on minting machinery.

At the centre of this oval-shaped medal or plaque, from the Paris Mint, is the commanding presence of a screw press, the same ornately decorated press that was used on official Paris Mint postcards over 100 years ago.   Celebrating on medals the art of making coins has a long history and it is entirely appropriate that a museum devoted to furthering knowledge of this art should have a good and growing collection of such medals.