alloy of gold and silver found in a natural state.[1] Silver
was coined in the island of Aegina soon afterwards. The art
of coining was introduced by the Greeks into Italy and other
countries bordering on the Mediterranean and into Persia and
India. Subsequently the Romans laid the foundations of modern
minting. Coining originated independently in China at a later
date than in the western world, and spread from China to Japan
and Korea. Coins may be made by casting in moulds or by
striking between engraved dies. The Romans cast their larger
copper coins, in clay moulds carrying distinctive markings, not
because they knew nothing of striking, but because it was not
suitable for such large masses of metal. Casting is now used only
by counterfeiters. The most ancient coins were cast in bullet-shaped
or conical moulds and marked on one side by means of
a die which was struck with a hammer. The “blank” or unmarked
piece of metal was placed on a small anvil (ambos), and
the die was held in position with tongs. The reverse or lower
side of the coin received a rectangular mark made by the sharp
edges of the little anvil. Subsequently the anvil was marked
in various ways, and decorated with letters and figures of beasts,
and later still the ambos was replaced by a reverse die. The
spherical blanks soon gave place to lenticular-shaped ones.
The blank was made red-hot and struck between cold dies.
One blow was usually insufficient, and the method was similar
to that still used in striking medals in high relief, except that the
blank is now allowed to cool before being struck. With the
substitution of iron for bronze as the material for dies, about
A.D. 300, the practice of striking the blanks while they were hot
was gradually discarded.[2] In the middle ages bars of metal
were cast and hammered out on an anvil. Portions of the
flattened sheets were then cut out with shears, struck between
dies and again trimmed with shears. A similar method had been
used in Egypt under the Ptolemies (c. 300 B.C.) but had been
forgotten. Square pieces of metal were also cut from cast bars,
converted into round disks by hammering and then struck
between dies. In striking, the lower die was fixed into a block
of wood, and the blank piece of metal laid upon it by hand. The
upper die was then placed on the blank, and kept in position by
means of a holder round which was placed a roll of lead to protect
the hand of the operator while heavy blows were struck with a
hammer. An early improvement was the introduction of a tool
resembling a pair of tongs, the two dies being placed one at the
extremity of each leg. This avoided the necessity of readjusting
the dies between blows, and ensured greater accuracy in the
impression. Minting by means of a falling weight (monkey press)
intervened between the hand hammers and the screw press in
many places. In Birmingham in particular this system became
highly developed and was long in use. A. Olivier introduced
screw presses for striking coins, together with rolls for reducing
the cast bars and machines for punching-out round disks from
flattened sheets of metal, in Paris in 1553. After being discarded
in 1585, except for making medals, they were reintroduced by
J. Varin in 1640 and the practice of hammering was forbidden
in 1645.[3] In England the new machinery was tried in London in
1561, but abandoned soon afterwards; it was finally adopted in
1662, although the old pieces continued in circulation until 1696.
At first the rolls were driven by workmen by means of cranks,
but later they were worked by horses, mules or water-power.
Steam-power was applied to them by Matthew Boulton and Watt
in Birmingham in 1788, and was adopted by the Royal Mint,
London, in 1810. Recently the practice of driving rolls by
electricity has been growing, the advantage being that each pair
of rolls can be driven independently without the intervention of
cumbrous shafting. Boulton and Watt’s screw press, invented
in 1788 and used at the Royal Mint until 1881, was worked by
atmospheric pressure applied to a piston. The piston was in
communication with a vacuum vessel from which the air had been
pumped by steam power.
History of British Mints.—In Britain there are evidences of the existence of mints before the arrival of the Romans. The Romans at first imported their coins, and no Roman mints were established until about the end of the 3rd century, when coins were being struck at London and Colchester.[4] In Anglo-Saxon times Athelstan appears to have been the first monarch who enacted regulations for the mints.[5] He promulgated laws about. the year 928, appointing a large number of “moneyers” or “mynteres,” London being assigned eight, Canterbury seven, other important towns various numbers and all smaller boroughs one moneyer each. The necessity for so many mints lay in the imperfect means of communication. At an early period, probably about A.D. 1000, the dies were made in London and issued to the other mints. The moneyers, who were elected by the burgesses, were responsible for the manufacture of the coin, and according to Madox were liable at the time of Henry II. to be summoned to Westminster to take part in the trials of the pyx.[6] If there was any deficiency in the weight of the fineness of the coin the moneyers were punished as traitors. These moneyers appear to have been abolished about 1180,[7] when officers were appointed to supervise the coinage on behalf of the king, and the name “moneyer” was applied to contractors who manufactured the coin under superintendence and were not responsible to the king for its weight and fineness. The moneyers continued to manufacture the coin of the realm until the year 1850, when the work was entrusted to civil servants. In the reign of Henry III. the principal officers of the Mint were the master, who manufactured the coin under a contract, the warden or paymaster who acted on behalf of the Crown, the assay master (also a king’s officer) who was responsible for the fineness of the coin, the cuneator or superintendent of the engravers of the dies, and the moneyer. One of the most important duties of the warden was the collection from the contractor of the seigniorage which was claimed by the sovereign by virtue of his prerogative as a source of revenue to the Crown. In 1718 Sir Isaac Newton was made master of the Mint, and in that capacity as contractor for the coinage he amassed a considerable fortune.[8] As the work of the Mint became more extensive and more complicated other officers were added and their duties were varied from time to time. The present administration of the English Mint is based on arrangements made in 1870, when the establishment was reorganized. The office of master of the Mint is held by the chancellor of the exchequer for the time being, without salary, but the actual administrative work of the department is entrusted to the deputy master and comptroller. The receipt of bullion and the delivery of coin from the Mint is under the charge of the chief clerk, the manufacture of coin is in the hands of the superintendent of the operative department, and the valuation of the bullion by assay, and matters relating to the fineness of the coin are entrusted to the chemist and assayer. The date of the establishment of the Mint in the Tower of London is unknown. There is a reference to it dated 1229 and a clear reference dated 1329.[9] According to Ruding, there were over fifty mints in the reign of Edward the Confessor. After the Norman Conquest the mints increased to about seventy, a greater number than now exists in the world, but they were gradually reduced and in the reign of Edward I. there were only twelve. Ruding enumerates 128 mints operated at various times in the United Kingdom, including some established by usurpation, as in the reign of Stephen by certain barons, and also mints established by grants to ecclesiastics to be worked for their own profit. The provincial mints were all closed just before the reign of Mary, who coined in London only. Charles I. set up small mints in various towns, and for the great re-coinage in the reign of William III. mints were established at York, Chester, Exeter, Bristol and Norwich, but were soon abandoned. Wood’s copper money for Ireland and America was coined at Wolverhampton (1700–1722), and the tradesmen’s tokens were struck at various towns. Copper coins were struck by Boulton at Soho, Birmingham,
- ↑ Op. cit. i. 136. Herodotus i. 94.
- ↑ E. Dumas, L’Émission des monnaies décimales de bronze, p. 14.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 19.
- ↑ H. A. Grueber, Coins of Great Britain and Ireland, p. viii.
- ↑ Rogers Ruding, Annals of the Coinage, 3rd ed. ii. 135.
- ↑ Grueber, op. cit. p. xxv.
- ↑ Ibid. p. xxvi.
- ↑ Ruding, op. cit. i. 35.
- ↑ Ibid. ii. 192, 194.
