LaunchPad: Coin Production in the Roman World

Coins were made of pieces of gold, silver, or bronze, known as blanks, which were cast or cut to specific weights. To make a coin, a blank was sandwiched between a pair of dies with engraved designs. This was then struck, or hit with a hammer, the force of which impressed the designs into the coin on both sides. Struck from solid gold, this type of Roman coin, called a solidus, was first minted in the late 3rd century A.D. and was used until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. Although many of the techniques used in the ancient world for striking coins are lost to us today, this video demonstrates one possible way the Art Institute's solidus of Constantine the Great might have been made.

This video was produced with the generous support of a Long Range Fund grant provided by the Community Associates of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was created for LaunchPad, a program of digital interpretive materials that supplement the viewing of works of art on display in the Art Institute of Chicago's galleries.

[joupe]

I always wondered how Roman coins were made, thanks for the video!

[ytwar]

There is lots of evidence that blanks were struck cold, not hot or warmed. People who have reproduced the process find cold blanks strike just as easily and are obviously far easier to work with.

[spydersweb]

it's a great demo, but it doesn't address the issue of the die-making. I have examined many ancient coins with a powerful loupe and marvelled at the artists' skill in carving and engraving with some features less than a hundredth of an inch. How were the die maker artists able to carve minute details like eyeballs, hair, etc into the die with what must have been very crude lenses made of water-filled glass spheres? Have there been any attempts to replicate this process?

[brianrichards]

This description of the production of planchets (coin blanks, prior to minting) is, I believe, inaccurate. After looking at a lot of  ancient coins, my observations are that the planchets were cut out of a sheet of metal. This sheet of metal was produced by casting  metal into a mold  and then hammering it out into a flat sheet, an extremely early technique, practiced almost everywhere in the ancient world, as a preparatory method for holloware and jewelry, and incidentally coin planchets, The planchets were cut out in approximately the appropriate shape and size and then weighed to assure the correct weight. More metal could be removed from the edge if necessary. Underweight coin planchets were sent to be re-melted, along with the scrap from the planchet making process. There are ancient coins which are actually cast entirely as a coin, with the designs on both sides, and there are instances of planchets being made by casting, but, by far, planchets were made as I describe.

[Alfiewobbel]

''you can think of obverse and reverse as being similar to heads and tails'' thank you for making sure that millennials can also understand it

[nodnodwinkwinkV]

It's a pity the final step of hammering a blank was not done instead of using CGI...

[XavierArrived]

Wow I love the place its so cool how its made

[jeffreyorosas]

Awesome Video Love it and Enjoyed it very much.Thank you for it!!

[johnsingh]

THAT WAS COOL. if i ever find a Roman Gold Coin, it would be cool. not jsut for the gold content, but the history.

who has ever held a piece of man made any thing that is roughly the time of Jesus.

[Sebster_m]

Thanks you so much this video is a life saver.

[Michael-dbce]

Why didn't they use measured amounts of silver in pre-drilled or chiseled wells in a rock, then heat the thing in a furnace? Seems like a resilient mold could be used repeatedly in a furnace.

[kacatriku]

Even a little child can guess how the metal is melted and then put it in the mold...how about the dies... that's the most interesting fact that is missing..

[edouardwotawa]

do you know where we can get the dies with roman figures, to make replicas?

[brandonberry]

Honestly this might be the most interesting and relevant video on all of YouTube for your financial future... (08 was small compared to 2023 ill)

[jason]

I want to make my own coin with my face as the symbol.

[DirtCobaine]

I’ve always wondered why the coins we find today aren’t perfectly round. I wonder if it used to be perfectly round like coins today but just being that old they decay and lose their shape or if they didn’t care to make it perfectly round and just made the blanks round enough and didn’t really care to make it perfect. Can’t seem to find any answers on this

[bartsaxton]

I do coin striking demos, if you want me to come to chicago and strike some coins for you I would be happy to do that.

[calebchild]

In all honesty, this isn't too different from how coins are made today.

[kenhutch]

How did romans carve into the steel stamps or dies?

[bonkersmcgee]

So many coins look very off center as if they were struck poorly. Why were these allowed to go into circulation instead of just being melted back down again?