Making Medals and Coins : A Catalogue of Dies and Puncheons in the British Museum

The British Museum collection of dies and puncheons has never before been published in its entirety.

Spanning the period from the Middle Ages to the mid-20th century, it includes the professional holdings of two groups of pre-eminent medallists, the Roettiers family in the late 16th to 17th centuries and the firms of Wyon and Pinches in the 19th to 20th centuries.

The catalogue gives a detailed and illustrated account of the collection which comprises over 800 objects.

These tools for making coins and medals show the faces of the pieces in successive stages of the production process.

They provide important information about how a design was arrived at, and document developments which took place during the history of its use, such as the need to remodel or recycle it according to demand.

The introduction discusses the conclusions to be drawn from the physical appearance of the tools and sets them in the wider context of coin and medal production, noting that this is essentially a collaborative process, involving several individuals: patron, designer, engraver, die-forger, labourer or machine operator.