Viking Coin Striking set

thingiverse

This is the Viking Coin Striking set, with a mold, punches, cutter, dies and hammer. All made after hisorical artifacts. Have fun learning about vikings, trading and silver ! Complete the kit with a scale, or other viking artifacts, visite my collection here :http://www.thingiverse.com/Snorri/collections/viking/page:1 Custom Section Overview & Background: With this project you will learn about currency during the viking age, the difference between a bullion or coin based economy and how coins were struck. Objectives: -Basic Viking history -The difference between bullion and coin based economy -Ancient metal working and coin striking Audiences: 8-13 years old Subjects: -History -Economy -Art Skills Learned : -History -Economy -Psychomotor skills Lesson/Activity: -Bullion Economy For the teacher a very good article can be found here :http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/money_01.shtml The silver was molten is a clay furnace using bellows : And poured in soapstone molds. Press a ball of clay into the mold to form an ingot or a thor hammer. You can decorate the Mjolnir (thor hammer) with the punches, with real silver you would have to strike hard to get an impression, but with putty a slight tap is sufficent. You can now explan how ingots and silver objects were traded for their silver weight and could be mercilessely hacked to pieces or melted again. -Coin based economy To make coins it starts the same way, melt the silver, pour into mold, get ingot. But then something different happens. The silver ingot was struck repeatedly with a hammer to form a thin sheet. Blanks were cut with a circular cutter The blank was then placed between the 2 dies And struck. You can simulate the same process with the putty, cast into a mold, flatten with the hammer (flip over frequently to avoid the putty to stick),It's not easy to get a flat surface with a hammer, it's the same with silver. Cut a disk with the circular cutter, place the blank between the dies and strike (not to hard). You now have your own Adelred Hiberno-Norse silver penny. the Cuerdale hoard Fragments of Early Medieval Viking hacksilver from Penrith area Viking silver ingots If you want to you can print and use the foldable viking scale I have made from archeological pieces here :http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1646256 A viking forteress :http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1609498 A 3D scanned viking warrior :http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1609582 A 3D scanned viking axe head :http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1609633 A viking boat (langskip) :http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1622713 A (working) viking lock :http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1630445 Viking art :http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1622196http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1622193http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1609484