This turned up on my desk this afternooon. It's the plaster cast used on the reducing machine to create the dies that strike the Charles Dickens coins. This item is, as far as I know, unique. I will upload a better picture in due course...as we're going to be giving this away in a competition. I just haven't figured out what sort of competition it will be yet We also have a really nice video interview with Matt Dent coming up, he's the designer behind this coin, the WWF 50p and the UK shield design on our definitive coinage.
I'm curious. Its obvious, from the giveaway, that the UK still uses plaster casts. I was under the mistaken impression that the UK and the Commonwealth countries were fully computerized using CNC to manufacture dies thereby eliminating the reducing step? Additionally, wouldn't this casting have to have been used to create a Galvano for the reducing machine instead of actually being used on the reducing machine itself?
