Roman denarius

Over the course of the last 200 years the Royal Mint Museum has grown through purchases but also through the generosity of others. During the 1920s and 1930s, for instance, the well respected numismatist L. A. Lawrence presented many items to the Mint that have added significantly to the collection.

 

One such item is a Roman denarius of the Republic, the reverse design of which was once thought to depict implements used for manufacturing coins. More recently some scholars have wondered if the presence of hammer and tongs might instead relate to Vulcan, the god of metalworking. Wherever the truth lies, there was good reason at the time in Lawrence’s mind for the Mint to have a specimen of a coin that seemed to relate to how coins were made.