Speaker
Description
The literature on the use of early minting presses is highly scattered. The basis for the most recent overview in English is selective (Cooper, 1988), and omits many sources in German. This omission is serious, as minting presses were mainly developed in German-speaking regions. Many of these are included in an overview in German (Meding, 2016), yet this book does not cover the Baltic area. Thus, one could say there is a double myopia in documenting the early history of minting presses. This likely leads to an overemphasis of the importance of aspects promoting or hindering minting press use. In an effort to partly remedy this, I present an extended overview of minting presses’ evolution. Particular attention is paid to the role of different parties involved: the press builders, the rulers of states, and minting personnel, and their interactions.
