Pontypridd’s MP awards Primary School students with unique commemorative coins

Alex Davies-Jones, Member of Parliament for Pontypridd, this morning awarded commemorative coins to Year 6 pupils at Cwmlai Primary School in Tonyrefail.

The coins, a generous donation from The Royal Mint based in Llantrisant, will be given to all Year 6 pupils across the Pontypridd constituency over the next few months.

This small gift is to thank pupils for their hard work despite the challenges that they have faced due to coronavirus and its previous restrictions.

Speaking after the ceremony, Alex Davies-Jones MP said:

“It’s been lovely to give back to the community this morning. These children’s lives have been hugely impacted by the pandemic, so being able to award them with these beautiful coins is a real honour.

“These special coins are a lovely recognition of all the children’s hard work and perseverance over the last two years, and I hope today’s ceremony will be a lovely memory for all Year 6 pupils at Cwmlai as they take their next steps in education. I look forward to visiting more schools to present more Year 6 pupils with their coin soon!

“I’m also very grateful to the Royal Mint for their very generous donation of these commemorative coins, and I’ve always been so proud to have the Mint headquartered in our community in Llantrisant.

“Throughout the pandemic, the Mint have done fantastic work contributing to our national effort. At the height of the second wave in 2020, the Mint stepped up and used their engineering and design expertise to produce two million pieces of PPE for the NHS.”

Rebecca Morgan, Director of Collector Services at The Royal Mint, said:

“We’re so proud to call Rhondda Cynon Taff our home, and it’s remarkable to think that every UK coin starts its journey here.

Working with Alex we hope to inspire local children to learn more about the coins made in Llantrisant, and the inspirational themes depicted on them.

Each coin is a miniature work of art which takes a team of craftspeople to make, we hope to see some of the children designing their own coin with us in the future.”