FROM ORE TO COIN – Part Two
FROM ORE TO COIN – Part Two
Last time, we stopped with the metal bar / Barren. What happened to it next, and who was involved?
Since it was necessary to determine how much silver the bar contained and how good its quality was, it was not enough simply to establish its weight. Above all, the proportion of pure silver had to be determined. The Probierer, or assayer, therefore returned to the process to establish the metal content. He was followed by the Wardein, who was responsible for checking the fineness of the coin metal in accordance with the mint ordinance.
Although these two positions may appear interchangeable at first sight, they were not. Put simply, the assayer determined how much silver had been obtained from the ore, whereas the Wardein was responsible for the fineness of the silver itself.
This was followed by recording and accounting, which were absolutely essential to the economics of the entire operation. The administration recorded how much ore had been extracted, how much metal had been smelted and what its silver content was. These figures subsequently determined how much was received by the Gewerken, the Schlicks and the ruler.
Each mining operation was divided into shares, known as Kuxe, and the profits were distributed accordingly. In addition, the share belonging to the owners of the estate and lordship was fixed, as were the taxes on mining and coinage due to the ruler.
At this point, the Bergamt, or Mining Office, entered the process. It supervised compliance with mining law, inspected the mine owners, safeguarded the rights of the ruler and monitored the movement of the metal. The ore had been transformed into metal at the smelting works, but it was official accounting that turned it into an economically quantifiable product.
The metal intended for coinage was then transferred to the mint, where another group of specialists took over.
The mint was headed by the Münzmeister, the mint master, who was responsible for its operation. Interestingly, his mint master's mark formed part of the thaler dies, making it possible to determine retrospectively which mint master was in charge at the time the coin was struck. For large silver coins, this was an exceptionally effective way of controlling both quality and provenance.
The silver bar was remelted at the mint. Its composition then had to be adjusted so that the silver content was consistent from one coin to another. In Joachimsthal, the prescribed fineness for the thalers was 931/1000.
The molten metal was then cast into moulds, producing bars which were forged and rolled to the required thickness. The resulting sheet was cut into individual blanks, whose weight and thickness were checked. The blanks were then finished into round coin flans, from which thalers, Prague groschen and other coins were struck.
Once the bars arrived from the smelting works, the Schmelzer, or smelter, and the Gießer, or caster, took over. They remelted and mixed the metal and cast it into moulds to produce metal bars.
The bars were then forged into sheet metal. Later, rolling was introduced, supervised by the Walzmeister, or rolling master. He supplied the minting department with sheet metal of the prescribed thickness.
The individual coin blanks, or Schrötlinge, were cut from this sheet. This was the responsibility of the Schrötler, the blank cutter.
The resulting blanks were then further worked. Their edges were cleaned, burrs removed and their surfaces prepared for striking. The finished blanks were weighed and measured, while defective pieces that did not meet the required standard were returned for remelting.
Once the blanks passed inspection, the actual striking of the coins could begin.
For the Münzer, or coiner, to strike individual coins, he needed two dies – an upper and a lower die. These were supplied by the Stempelschneider, the die cutter, a person working somewhere between an artist and a craftsman.
He produced the mirror image of the coin design on steel dies – the Oberstempel and Unterstempel. The finished coins were then inspected by the Wardein, who checked whether the striking had been carried out correctly. Defective coins were rendered unusable and returned for remelting.
A seemingly separate specialist in Joachimsthal was the Medailleur, or medallist. He designed various medals and badges, which were works of art in their own right. The medallist was often also a die cutter, although particularly in later periods the two roles increasingly became separate, with the medallist developing into an independent artist.
The Pesttaler, or plague thaler, is a particularly striking example in which the distinction between medal, coin and religious amulet almost completely disappears. Medals were produced at the weight of a thaler, in multiples of the thaler or in fractions of it. At first, medals predominantly carried religious motifs, but later they also featured portraits of rulers, members of the nobility and prominent citizens.
Throughout this process, we have mentioned only the most important people. In reality, dozens of individuals were involved – from the assistants who kept the workshops in order, maintained the fires in the furnaces and performed various supporting tasks, to inspectors, guards, clerks and officials.
Photo gallery: https://www.rajce.idnes.cz/mipalfi/album/od-stribra-k-tolaru
