
From Money to Metal: How to Operate a Civic Mint in the Roman Empire
March 18 @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Sponsored by: AIA-New Orleans Society
AIA Society: New Orleans

Speaker: Dr. Kenneth W. Harl, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Tulane University
Based on analysis of the coins themselves, Professor Harl reconstructs how Greek cities in the Roman Empire manufactured and distributed bronzes coins. Not only do the coins reveal the stages of production by workers and the engraving of dies by artists, but they also offer a means of calculating the output of money. The scale of production and organization of labor are both far more impressive than hitherto realized. The coins struck by mint of Marcianopolis (today Devnya, Bulgaria) in the reign of the Emperor Macrinus (217-218) offer the test case for explaining how metal was turned into money.

