Minting the Picture: Machines and Coinage in Transition from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century

Historiography has highlighted the importance of the visual elements of coins as well as technical drawings of minting technology to illustrate the evolution of minting and the process of its mechanisation. However, the design of the drawings themselves has been largely neglected. A comparison of drawings of coining technology from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century reveals a significant, and in some ways even revolutionary, development of technical documentation in practical engineering. This article addresses two major changes in early modern times: first, the development or rediscovery of the linear perspective, which made it possible to create an exact geometrical abstraction of an object and second, the replacement of the linear perspective with the orthographic view for a better technical documentation of machine designs around 1700. This was an important development, making engineering knowledge more visible and establishing technical drawings as a powerful tool for communication in the field of engineering. Although minting was apparently a princely affair in early modern times, it was nevertheless intimately linked with the realms of technical documentation, expertise and literature. As the methodologies and scope of technical drawings changed, so did the requirements and demands for technical expertise by the court and administration.