Ancient British Coin Flan Moulds

[n.igma]

What is it about the British press that requires everything have a whiff of sex scandal about it? Under the misleading headline (or should that be sideline?) .... New light shed on Royal sex scandal as ancient Roman remains unearthed  ....

A key discovery at the site is a large collection of late Iron Age metal pellet moulds, thought to have been used for native coin manufacture. Research at the University of Liverpool has revealed that they were probably used to produce gold/silver/copper alloy native British coins – perhaps needed for massively increased levels of trade with newly arrived Roman merchants. The alloys detected in them are consistent with native British coin production. Their discovery may well be the first archaeological evidence of Brigantian coin production – because so far no coins of that particularly important British tribal kingdom have ever been found.

Significantly, fragments of up to 50 ceramic metal pellet mould trays have been discovered in the native British area of the Scotch Corner settlement. There were two types of tray – ones for producing 100 metal pellets each and others for producing just 50 slightly larger pellets – arguably to make larger coins.

In total, the trays, unearthed by the archaeologists, would have been capable of producing over 3000 metal pellets which would have been turned, with the help of a hammer and die, into coins. It is the most northerly archaeological evidence for Iron Age coin manufacturers in Europe.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/royal-sex-scandal-roman-empire-yorkshire-discovery-a7671171.html

Interesting to speculate on how these were used. Presumably a measured weight of metal chips was placed in each depression, then the whole lot fired to fuse the contents of each into a metal pellet of standard weight. The pellet was then hammered flat before striking.

[vrtsprb]

Or maybe these are ancient collector's trays... 


G/<

[SC]

Collecting ancient coins, clearly the sexiest of hobbies!

On a more serious note I think you are right in your interpretation of manufacture.

The problem with individual moulds is how to control the amount of metal per hole.  Even though copper flans made this way would be al-marco I suspect that trying to pour molten metal into each flan would still yield results that are way to varied.  So barring some sort of way to overfill them and scrape off the excess - very messy - it seems more likely they were filled cold and then heated to form the pellets.

So filled likely from metal flakes and/or powder which could be measures, or pieces cut from a metal bar or sheet.  That way you could exercise some control over weight.

SC