Designing Currency
Neve Foxcroft, Lydia Ashe
6 November 2026
Day + Time | Friday | 10am – 11am
Location | Royal Australian Mint, Denison Street, Deakin
Entry | Free | Registration required
Access | Wheelchair accessible, accessible bathroom, accessible parking, off street parking
2026 marks the 60th anniversary of Decimal Currency, designed by Australian industrial designer Stuart Devlin and minted here in Canberra at the Royal Australian Mint. To mark the year, the Mint presents an in-conversation event with coin designers Neve Foxcroft and Lydia Ashe. We unpack the craft and process behind designing a coin, sometimes beginning as a pencil sketch, often still using the tools Devlin employed in his own designs, and incorporating modern technologies.
Coins produced at the Royal Australian Mint connect design and storytelling with community, and we talk about how we use design and brand to share Australian stories. We talk about the collaborative nature of our production facility, and the design of our production processes for safety and sustainability. This talk commences at 10am in our Museum Gallery, overlooking our coin production hall. The event will be recorded and shared with our social media audience.
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Neve Foxcroft is the newest coin designer at the Royal Australian Mint. Having studied art at university, majoring in ceramics and glass, her sculptural art practice spans a hybrid realm between traditional craft skills and computer aided design and manufacture. Both sets of skills are essential for coin design.
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Lydia Ashe is a Senior Coin Designer at the Royal Australian Mint. She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours in Sculpture from the ANU School of Art. With a decade of experience working in the Tool Room at the Mint, she completed an apprenticeship in Machining, learnt hand engraving, and specialised in Master Tooling. During this period she studied traditional and digital coin design, and four years ago, transitioned to a full-time role as a Coin Designer and Sculptor.
Presented by Royal Australian Mint
Image | 60th Anniversary Mintmark Coin Design | Image courtesy of the Royal Australian Mint