Have you ever been up late one night watching TV when an infomercial comes on sporting a collectable coin and showing detailed images of the coin art? Most likely, you just tune it out or use the time to run and grab another soda or chocolate bar before your show returns, but if you turn off the sound and just look at the coin on the TV, you just might wonder how they do it.
Making such a little piece of art, a bit of metal that fits in your palm with a relief sculpture, a detailed piece of art, and there are hundreds of thousands made each year! The exact repetition on each coin is a fantastic thing to look at, but it’s actually a fairly simple process.
The first step of coin making is having an artist create a small relief image and making a press plate from it. A press plate is a very hard metal plate that has the impression from the original sculpture on it.
Some coins are made by pouring molten metal directly into the form or press so that as it cools, it takes on the shape of the mold it was poured into, but that is the least common way in the modern day. Currently, there are two kinds of official “presses” that are used to “mint” coins, a screw and a lever press. The crew press was invented around 1550, and involves placing a flat metal disk is placed on one press plate with another press plate on top of it and then a screw is turned to press the plates into the metal until both plates leave an impression. The second type, the lever press or Uhlhorn Press, involves using a steam lever to produce the same pressure as a screw press, but is able to press multiple coins at the same time. This is how most coins are made today. There is one other method, a drop press, but that is mostly used for carnival coins.
So, there you have it! A little trivia about coin making.