Why no hammered copper coins? Just silver and gold?
Zoins
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I've enjoyed the hammered gold and silver coins posted by many people here including @Weiss and @BillJones. One thing I never thought too much about was why I never saw hammered copper coins. Initially, I thought it was just that copper was not valued enough to be coined, but upon reading the following from Notre Dame, it seems there were technical problems with hammering copper which were resolved by the introduction of the screw press.
Why can't copper be hammered?
A Brief History of British Regal Copper Production during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
On Thursday August 1, 1672, Charles II demonetized tokens and announced the government would begin making copper small change coins in a proclamation entitled "A Proclamation for making currant His Majestie's Farthings and Half-pence of Copper, and forbidding all others to be used" (printed in Peck, pp. 605-607). For centuries the crown had produced and continued to mint silver pennies, but they had never issued coppers. With the change from hammer coinage to the use of the screw press the king hoped to be able to profitably make a sufficient number of standardized small change coppers for the country.
https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/Br-Copper.intro.html
Comments
The Spanish monarchy hammered colonial copper cobs. I believe they’re called maravidas. Or similar spelling. Not sure if that’s what you were talking about though.
What about Roman Bronze? Then Byzantine copper?
Thanks for the link. Having worked for a British company, and spent considerable time in Britain, I only saved a few British coins. I did have two sets of the gold Britannia's at one time, but sold those. I visited one coin shop in London, but did not buy any coins. The coins I do have are Crowns and a couple others. Cheers, RickO
Not sure. I don't see them posted to the forums often.
This.
Lots of hammered copper.
I think it is fair to call all ancient coins "hammered".
You tend to see the term "hammered coinage" as referring to more medieval coinage, especially the UK, which might be the way you are thinking of it. In that period and country, the coinage was almost exclusively gold and silver.
Crusaders. Latin rulers of Constantinople, 1204-1261 AD. Billon Trachy. Facing beardless bust of Christ / Emperor standing facing. 19mm, 1.50 g. ref: Hahn 29,14; SB 2048. VF. Ex London Ancient Coins Ltd. Excellent detail for these! #CM2753: $175
Hammered or no?
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Maybe some one can start one. Just an idea
No. Coin press. All British Conder Tokens were made using coin presses.
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Tom, formerly in Albuquerque, NM.
AE Sceat of Aethelred II, King of Northumbria 841-844 AD. ( I know. Not a US coin.) Hammered copper.
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Tom, formerly in Albuquerque, NM.
Very interesting read. Thank you Zoins.
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Pretty sure Lincoln matte proofs were struck on a press.
But nice coin!
Lance.
People are confused by the term “hammered” because we often use it to describe coins with unusually full details.
US and British coin collector, and creator of The Ultimate Chuck E. Cheese's and Showbiz Pizza Place Token & Ticket Guide
Many European countries were striking copper/bronze coins by the mid 1400's.
Most coins that were minted were silver, for the profit for the mintmaster. Not
much if any with copper/bronze coins.
Bronze coinage mostly fell out of use in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire (though there were some issues in the Italian states, as well as the early modern Spanish Maravedis previously mentioned). On continental Europe, the silver coinage was frequently debased, so small base silver coins were a more common form a small change. By the time true bronze coinage came back into fashion, machine striking of coinage was being widely adopted.
Outside Western Europe, bronze coins did continue to be used in the post-Roman world. Bronze coins were important to daily commerce in the Byzantine Empire, and when the Arab dynasties struck their first coins, their bronze coins imitated the Byzantines. The Islamic fals and its descendants continued to be hammer struck until gradually replaced with modern minting technologies from the 19th to the 20th centuries.
Hammered bronze coins were usually struck with less care than their precious metal counterparts. Ambivalent quality control, combined with bronze's greater vulnerability to reacting chemically with its environment over the centuries, may dampen their appeal to the modern numismatic market. However, this also keeps their prices more affordable, so hammered bronze coins may present an opportunity for the collector with the gumption to delve into history's more obscure small change.
Yeah, but man that thing is hammered.
The coins issued by General Moreles in Oaxaca, 1811-1814 were struck from native copper using crude dies, big hammers and strong men.