Die/Mould For Roman Coin

[Guest Philip Greenhalgh]

In 1974, I used to live in a village called Carrington in Manchester. When I was six/seven years old I found a bronze (I assume because it was a dark brown metal) die/mould of a roman coin or medallion, in my neighbours back garden, I say medallion because it was much larger than any coin I had seen at six - I would have described it as about the size of the Queen Silver Jubilee coin. The die consisted of both halves of and they were square and undamaged.

My neighbour claimed my find and took it to Manchester museum who confirmed that it was Roman and valued it at £625, which as you can image was an enormous amount of money in the seventies!

Unfortunately I can not remember any details from the die itself - being only six and trying to read reverse latin(?) would have been a challenge.

My friend and I took it to our school to show to everybody where, unfortunately, somebody stole it from us.

Obviously, with a more mature oversight of where I used to live I can remember other features of the site:

Man made ditches and the bottom of our garden; charcoal, slag/melted metal in a basin shaped depress.

So my questions would have to was there a Roman mint or foundary where I used to live?

If it was valued at £625 in 1974 was this a very rare find?

Where would I go from here to find any information about such a coin?

Many thanks

Philip Greenhalgh

[Chris Perkins 228]

Phillip,

That sounds very interesting...Let me go off on a complete 180 degree angle first. Is there a Nicola Greenhalgh in your family? She's about 29, very attractive and lives near Stockport somewhere. She's a friend of mine. Just wondered as you were also a 'Manchester' Greenhalgh.

Anyway, I would imagine that would have been a very rare find and would be far more valuable now. Collecting the coins themselves has gone crazy these last 2 years let alone 30, and of course there is no way anyone can be accurate with an unusual item like that, but the circumstances were very unfortunate and it's a shame you no longer have it.

The fact that it was so large could possibly mean that it was a mould/die for making something other than coins/medals, I don't know, perhaps decorative bits of military armour or something. I am certainly not aware of any Roman coins being that large. In fact it would have been very difficult for them to strike such a large object with the force needed to imprint the design, so was it more likely a mould, not a die? There are many questions that will remain un answered.

I am not aware of any mints being in the Manchester area, but my Roman coin knowledge is pretty limited.

[Guest Philip Greenhalgh]

Sorry, no Nicola Greenhalgh in our family - that I know of...I was born Sandbach, Cheshire.

I don't know the difference between a die and a mould is it just a question of size?

I was thinking last night that it would be an idea to contact the Manchester museum and see if they have any records or photographs of it - I assume if it was a very interesting find they would have a record of it.

Philip

[Chris Perkins 228]

Yes and it's possible that it may have been sold to a Museum by your thieving school friend (or teacher!) at a later date.

A die comes in 2 parts. The bottom is fixed to a hard surface, the piece of metal, or blank goes on top of it, then the top die part is placed onto both the coin and lower die part. A hammer is then used to to strike the image of both sides onto the blank piece of metal.

A mould would usually be 2 parts too, but they would be squeezed together and liquid metal would be poured it. The Romans never made coins this way.