How Were Ancient Roman Coins Made?
Image Creation Each Roman coin was hand-crafted by an artisan. They were not mass-produced, so each coin, while the same, had subtle differences. The artisans used hand-made die casts and a round piece of silver, copper, gold or bronze for the coin. Individual die casts consisted of a square block of rock that had the engraving for the coin carved into it. The other die cast was hand-held with the same or second design carved on the end of it. A team of two people would work together. One person would heat the coin over a fire. When it was hot, he would remove it from the fire with a pair of tongs and lay it in the carving of the stone base. The other person would position the hand-held die over the coin and strike the die with a hammer, which produced the design on both sides of the coin. Working in teams of two coiners, as they were called, each team could produce up to 20,000 coins per day. Types of Die Casting There were five different die types for the Roman coins. This resulted i
