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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

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Supported by HSBC UK

Design your own coin

Use your imagination to design your own brand-new coin.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • A4 paper
  • Coloured pens or pencils
  • Device with access to the internet
  • A range of coins, or pictures of coins

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Planning this activity

  • Gather a range of different coins or pictures of coins. Try to get a good variety of different coins – you could use pictures of old coins or coins from different countries.

Learn about coins

  1. Gather everyone in a circle and explain that today you'll be looking at and designing your own coins.
  2. Everyone should split into small groups and each group should get some coins.
  3. People should take time to look at what is on the coins. They should think about the designs they can see, if there are any words or numbers on the coins, and the shapes of the coins.
  4. Ask everyone to chat about the coins in their groups.
  5. Bring everyone back into a circle. Ask everyone what they saw on the coins. Why might those things be there? You could talk about the people on the coins, who are they and why are they on the coin? Chat about any other pictures or designs too – what do they represent? 

Make money

  1. Tell everyone that they're going to design their own coin. They should think about what to include. What is important to them? They might want to recognise an inspirational figure, add a supportive message, or make it really colourful. 
  2. Everyone should grab some paper and something to draw their coin with. It’s time to design the coins!
  3. People can start drawing, painting, sticking or collaging their designs.What colour will the coin be? What about its shape? What will you draw on it?
  4. Once everyone has finished, gather back in a circle. Anyone who wants to can show off their new coin and talk about what they’ve put on it and why.
Nine different coins on a blue background. One has a Squirrel, one has a crown, one has Scouts written on it with lots of colourful stars.

Reflection

This activity was designed to get people thinking about what’s important to them and others. Take some time to ask questions and encourage the group to give their thoughts while everyone is showing off their coins. Did anyone choose the same things to put on their coins? Did people choose things they like, or things that were important to them? 

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Scissors

Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

You may want to choose a theme for everyone’s coins or ask each group to create a matching range of coins with different values.

You could make things easier by drawing out coin templates before your session.

People should feel free to work together to think about their coins and draw their designs. The coins could be designed using whatever is easiest; you could use paper and pens, craft materials, or a computer.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Money Skills
Money Skills

Step up your currency by giving it values and a name. Would your money have notes too? What would they look like?

You could use this activity to mark an event. Coins have often been used to mark historic events or influential people. What event or person could you mark with your coins?

Take a look at more money skills activities.

Encourage young people to choose what they want on their coins and think about why they made their choices. There aren’t any right or wrong answers here – it depends on what’s important to each person.