History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c14.s3.16

v1.c14.s3.16

The actual striking seems to have been done with the help of a hammer. After placing the die-end of the punch on the cold, or annealed or incandescent blank already set between the anvil-die and the punch-die the other end of the punch was struck with a hammer. As a result both sides of the blank received the required impressions and it was transformed into a coin. A recent experiment in Greek minting technique reveals that two blows of the hammer were sufficient to give full impression of both the dies on the flan (NC, 1963, p.226).