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Roman

Craft, industry and trade

Denarius Juba I BC 60-46

Description:

Roman coins spanning around 100 years have been found in the area. Some are made from Orichalcum, which is a shiny golden coloured bronze and others copper and silver.

There were many Roman forts and camps around the area where they were found and may have been dropped and lost or deliberately buried for safe keeping.

At this time these coins would have been struck somewhere on the continent and brought to Britain with the Roman military.

The process of minting involved either sheets of metal being rolled out and blanks cuts out of it or sometimes by pouring hot metal into moulds.

The die stamps bearing the images for each side of the coin would be carved into iron. One would be placed facing upwards with a heated blank sitting on top and the other die would be placed on top. It would then be struck really hard with a mallet to punch the images into the coin.

Many men probably slaves would be involved in the process and the work was very hard as anything up to 2.5 million coins may have been produced in a month.

Digital Number:
RPD0186


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