ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the mint as a central institution of the state, and as such it was almost sacred: this view is based on a number of observations, from the Roman goddess Moneta (i.e. Mint) and her connection with the god Vulcan, to various examples from different periods. Mints and their products, the coins, were at times even miraculous and made objects of rituals in different contexts, from the ‘royal touch’ of the English kings. Coins did bear the images of the identity of the state and in coins its subjects identified themselves: the images, and the dies that produced them, were thus jealously guarded, not only against forgers, but also against enemies who could strike ‘spite coins’. All the complex activities in the mint were directed by competent mint masters, and their skill could be perceived as the very essence of wisdom.
