Model, press for cutting out coin blanks

model, scale 1:8, of press for cutting out blanks for coining.

This is a model, made to scale of about 1:8, of a press for cutting out coin blanks. It bears many characteristic design features of the work of Henry Maudslay, whose firm made significant improvements in minting machinery. Maudslay's company preserved this model which represents a press for cutting discs out of prepared metal strip prior to their 'striking' to make coins. This was a process that had not previously been fully mechanised. The punch is worked by the crank in the centre of the shaft, while rollers, worked by a ratchet-feed mechanism driven from a second crank at the rear, feed the strip through the machine. The full-size machine would have been built of iron and driven through gearing from a steam engine or other central source of power.