Somerset polisher wins Precious Metalworker of the Year Award 2025
22nd November 2025 | ANNOUNCEMENTS | OUR STORIES
Somerset-based polisher Stephen M Goldsmith has won this year’s Precious Metalworker of the Year Award, supported by The Royal Mint, including a £2,000 prize and trophy awarded at a special presentation at Wentworth Woodhouse on Monday 17 November 2025.
The award, supported by The Royal Mint, celebrates a heritage craftsperson who has made an outstanding contribution to working with precious metals over the past year. It recognises a contribution that is far beyond the ordinary, based on a proven dedication to a particular metalworking skill.
In a career spanning over 50 years, Stephen M Goldsmith has polished almost every piece of high-end silverware you can imagine, including the Premier League trophy and the Americas Cup. In the past 12 months, he was commissioned to assist in the manufacture of the new Order of the Royal Family.
Stephen is one of a dwindling number of craftspeople specialising in a trade that was this year added to the Heritage Crafts’ Red List of Endangered Crafts under the umbrella category of ‘silver allied trades’. Where once industrial centres like Birmingham and Sheffield hosted a closely-knit network of interdependent specialists, the loss of such networks makes it increasingly difficult for the remaining practitioners to operate.
The Precious Metalworker of the Year trophy presented to Stephen was made by the fantastic team of coin designers and craftspeople at The Royal Mint. The piece is intended to take viewers on a journey of metalwork from its molten stage, through hammering, planishing, repoussé, chasing, and finally through to texture and engraving.
The judging panel for this year’s award was made up of Dan Thomas (King’s Assay Master at The Royal Mint), Gordon Summers (Chief Engraver at The Royal Mint), Rauni Higson MBE (silversmith), and last year’s winner, silver spinner Warren Martin.
Dan Thomas, King’s Assay Master at The Royal Mint, said:
“We’re immensely proud to support this award and to congratulate Stephen on this well-deserved recognition. I’d also like to recognise our other outstanding finalists, Angela and Alice, whose work exemplifies the highest standards of precious metalworking.
“The Royal Mint has a rich history spanning over a thousand years of working with precious metals, and we’re passionate about championing traditional skills and the talented craftspeople who keep them alive. Stephen’s dedication to his craft over five decades is truly inspiring.”
The two other finalists for the award were Angela Cork, a silversmith and Principal of Bishopsland Educational Trust, whose work is held in prominent collections around the world, and Alice Fry, a silversmith who specialises in the traditional techniques of chasing and repoussé to create rock textures and crystal shapes in silver and anodised niobium.
The Royal Mint and Heritage Crafts launched their partnership at the beginning of 2023. Since then, they have awarded 13 training bursaries to early-career practitioners wanting to develop their skills in precious metals. As an exemplar of British craftsmanship, The Royal Mint is committed to protecting and celebrating craftspeople and developing skills wherever possible.
Photo: Stephen M Goldsmith, winner of the 2025 Precious Metalworker of the Year Award, and Dan Thomas, King’s Assay Master at the Royal Mint. Photo by Robert Wade.