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Coin Collector | 8 | www.allaboutcoins.co.uk UPDATE The Royal Mint are making 1.9 million medical visors exclusively for the NHS in England and Wales to help protect medical workers – that’s over 100,000 per week. At the time of going to press, over 150,000 have already been made, with further supplies reaching hospitals across Britain in the next few weeks. Wearing a visor helps to protect medical staff from exposure to Coronavirus, and it was designed in consultation with staff at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital to ensure it was comfortable and durable. The Chancellor, and Master of the Mint, Rishi Sunak said: ‘It’s vital our brave NHS workers have the protective equipment they need to safely care for those affected by the coronavirus outbreak. I applaud the Royal Mint for refocusing their efforts and working around the clock to play their part during this national emergency.’ The Royal Mint first began making medical visors in March, after engineers created a design in just 48 hours and the Mint became the first firm in the UK to secure BSI safety approval. Anne Jessopp, Chief Executive of The Royal Mint said: ‘We want to play our part in the fight against Coronavirus by providing NHS staff with the protective equipment they need to keep the nation and themselves safe. ‘When people think of The Royal Mint they think about the coins in their pockets, but we’ve been making useful products for the nation for 1,100 years and have a team of skilled designers, engineers and production staff. Together they turned a rudimentary visor design into a working model in just 48 hours, and within a week we were manufacturing thousands per day.’ In addition to producing medical visors, the Mint has also helped to design and print Covid awareness cards for NHS workers in Cwm Taf Health Authority, in Wales. ROYAL MINT HELP NHS BY MAKING MASKS As seen with the Olympics 2020 coins already issued, the Covd19 pandemic means a range of commemorative coins and medals have been issued for events that are no longer taken place, including the Royal Dutch Mint’s special coin for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The famous song competition would have celebrated its 65th year in May, with the event was due to be held in Rotterdam. To mark the anniversary and the hosting of the event, the Royal Dutch Mint issued a special medal, available in a coincard, as a two ounce gold pieces, and a one ounce silver medal featuring a coloured design. The medal’s design uniquely captures all songs entered into the competition, as the Mint website explains: ‘In this ingenious design all editions of the Eurovision Song Contest come together. To obtain this, Dutch music producer Eric van Tijn created an unintelligible mix containing all songs from the 64 previous editions. ‘Designer Juan Sanchez-Castano developed a unique installation which he placed in the middle of Rotterdam Ahoy, the venue that would have hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The installation holds a speaker. On that speaker a bowl is placed, filled with water taken from the Maas (a river in Rotterdam). The water was handed to us by Rotterdam “Eurovision councilor” Said Kasmi. The mix was then played on the speaker. The sound waves of the mix became visible through the vibrations of the water on the speaker. Sanchez-Castano documented the vibrations and transferred them to a 3D model and eventually into a physical product with a special relief.’ A statement from the Mint said: ‘All Eurovision Song Contest issues were launched on 9 March by the Royal Dutch Mint. On 18 March the participating broadcasters and the Dutch authorities have decided to postpone the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which should have taken place from 12 until 16 May in Rotterdam, until a later time. The Eurovision Song Contest issues will remain available on the Royal Dutch Mint website and in the official Eurovision Song Contest webshop. Production and delivery continue as planned.’ At the time of going to print only the silver medal is still available. Watch a video showing the design process at: www.allaboutcoins.co.uk/coin-guides EUROVISION MEDAL MARKS CANCELLED EVENT GET MORE COIN NEWS AT WWW.ALLABOUTCOINS.CO.UK DAILY NEWS, AUCTION UPDATES, COIN GUIDES & SO MUCH MORE AT: WWW.ALLABOUTCOINS.CO.UK