Hands on History

In July 2007 a new interactive exhibition, Hands on History, organised by the Royal Armouries and Historic Royal Palaces, and supported by the Royal Mint and The History Channel, was opened on the top floor of the White Tower. A celebration of the Tower's history and the Royal Armouries' collection, the exhibition incorporates a key display on the Royal Mint and its 500 years at the Tower.

Hands on History encourages visitors to get up close and personal with the exhibits, allowing them to touch and hold items including bows, swords, muskets and helmets. In addition, visitors will have the chance to handle enlarged coinage portraits of William I, Edward III, Edward VI, Charles I and George II. There is also a large model of the Shield of the Royal Arms incorporating the new reverse designs for the United Kingdom coinage which were unveiled at the Tower in April 2008.

Visitors will learn about the skills and methods involved in the manufacture of coins, from the hammer-struck techniques of Norman times to the screw presses of the eighteenth century. Included in the display is a short film of a moneyer striking medieval-style coins using hand-held dies.

Hands on History brings to life ten centuries of the Tower's history and, in so doing, highlights the strong links between the ancient fortress and the Royal Mint.