28/07/2025
Greetings all! Suppose I had better make my first post something a bit special, so here's a couple of medals I designed and sculpted for Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee in 2002. The reason one of these medals is special has nothing to do with my work but everything to do with who it was made for. Namely, the British S.A.S. (Special Air Service).
During the Jubilee year The Birmingham Mint was contracted to create a new medal commemorating the 50th Anniversary of 22nd Air Service Regiment. The Queen Elizabeth portrait I created has only ever been used on that set of medals (and had to be approved by our Parliament) so, even though there are some truly hideous cast copies floating around on Ebay, the original is a very rare piece made for some very rare people. I'm quite pleased about that.
The models were made by the traditional method of clay sculpting, followed by plaster carving for the detail and text. Dies were cut on one of our two Janvier reduction machines and then fully proof polished (mirror finish). Medals were struck in silver, using our own blanks, before being gold plated. All of this was done in-house at The Birmingham Mint on Icknield Street, Birmingham (look it up if you're a coin/medal enthusiast). The photos I posted here are taken from mid stage reverse casts, so the text and detail is slightly unfinished (I've flipped the image to read correctly).
The second medal was more of a fun piece for the general public. I got to design, sculpt, and create all the packaging (using a free copy of CorelDraw as I recall). We may have struck a limited edition of proof versions but my memory fails me. Again it had to be passed by Parliament but this time they forced me to alter my artwork and delete a royal crest I had created myself (naughty). I replaced it with the rose at the last minute. Doesn't really make sense for the occasion but balances the design.
Any questions about The Birmingham Mint Ltd. Or the design/manufacturing process, feel free to drop me a message on here or Whatsapp.
P.S. If you have more information about anything I post here, or if you see any errors, feel free to correct me and add comments below. I'd like this page to become a hub for anyone interested or involved with the Industrial history and heritage of Birmingham and The Black Country.
