Background

Before the striking of coins by machinery during the Renaissance (A.D. 1450-1650), coins were completely struck by hand (Laing 1969: 3), ensuring that no two coins were ever exactly alike. Archaeological evidence for coin making gives basic information about the process. One artifact that is found is a coin blank, or flan. It can be made of many different metals such as silver, electrum (alloy of silver and gold), copper, bronze (alloy of copper and tin), lead, and gold. A flan is made by casting in a mould or cut from a long cylindrical rod (Laing 1969: 5). Flan moulds are found in various places of the eastern Mediterranean (Laing 1969: 4). Dies are the stamps used to strike the designs into coin blanks. The design of the coin is carved onto two dies—one for the obverse (heads) and one for the reverse (tails). Typically, the reverse die is movable, while the obverse die is set into an anvil.

To strike the coin, one puts a flan on top of the obverse die that’s set into the anvil. The reverse die is then placed on top of the flan, sandwiching it. A few hammer strikes transfers the image. Up to 1969, only about 46 Greek and Roman bronze and iron dies have survived. But the ones that have survived show a great variety and make it possible for one to have a basic idea of how they worked (Figure 1) (Laing 1969: 6).

Fig. 1: Basic idea of how minting worked.

Source: “The Production of Ancient Coins” http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/art/buerger/essays/production7.html

However, this still leaves many other questions unanswered: Did the striking method, either hot or cold, change over time? How does the striking method relate to mint organization? What was the mint organization of an ancient Roman mint? What can information about the basic mint organization during different periods in Roman history tell us? A tantalizing tidbit of history from emperor Aurelian’s (A.D. 270-275) reign warrants this investigation. There was a massive mint workers’ rebellion during his reign, and 7000 soldiers were killed suppressing the revolt (Zograph 1977: 51). How did the slaves, the mintworkers, get organized? Silver coinage during Aurelian’s reign was below ten percent silver. Does the minting technique that was most efficient for striking debased silver coinage hold some answers to the mystery of the mint workers’ ability to mobilize?

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