PONTHIR WI: On Monday, July 10, the great and the good ladies of Ponthir headed west along the M4 corridor to Llantrisant to arrive at The Royal Mint for an in depth tour.

The Royal Mint gave us a special after hours experience. Following security checks, our guides escorted us through the factory to explain the history of our coins of the realm all the way up to its current manufacturing process. 

Alison, our group guide, was keen to emphasise that the state of the art machinery may be German, but, it is driven by Welsh guts and determination-many thanks to Jim Callaghan way back in 1967.

The Mint works 24/7 producing coins and medals for over 100 countries worldwide-we clearly saw the Striking Hall with hoppers full of thousands of glittering coins and many of us took the opportunity to strike our very own brilliant uncirculated standard new 12-sided £1 coin. 

There is also an interactive exhibition spanning more than a 1000 years of money making from the Tower of London to its present home in Llantrisant.

It really was a fascinating evening and made us think more carefully about our loose change.

Now, look out for the Kew Gardens 50 pence piece, it is actually worth more than £30 or the undated 20 pence coin, produced between 2008 and 2009-present value much more like £100!

So, without doubt, an evening of educational enlightenment and entertainment.

(Margaret Barrell)