Judean Perspectives of Ancient Mints and Minting Technology

Abstract

A summary of artifactual evidence for ancient minting technology, focusing on the typology,
functionality and chronology of molds, yields the conclusion that covered molds were almost
exclusively devoted to the production of base-metal coins and flans. The detailed examination
of two roughly contemporary assemblages of stone connected-flan molds, from Paphos and
the southern Levant, explores their possible technological antecedents and their subsequent
disappearance. The connected-flan molds’ anomalously widespread distribution within their
locales raises questions of how and where the production of flans was conducted. For Judea,
the answers may also change perceptions of the nature of the Jerusalem mint.