The Royal Australian mint is offering Canberrans a chance to design a coin using the traditional technique still practised at mints around the world of etching a design in plaster.
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The mint offers classes this week and next with its professional coin designers, in which students learn to sculpt and then cast a coin from an animal design, including the 2018 Year of the Dog pattern, and add their personal mark.
The designs won't make it to the cash register, but are a chance for students to learn the plaster technique still used at the mint by some of the artists. Other designers have switched to computer programs for design. When made in plaster, coins are cast much larger than the final size, then scanned for production.
The series of courses, with just six students each, are the first run of their kind run by the mint, allowing people behind the security doors to learn directly from the designers.
