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The photo above was taken at the Museum of London and shows several
hammered silver coins along with the devices from which they were
fabricated.
A thin blank disk of silver/gold would be placed between
each of these dies (which were placed one atop the other) and then "hammered" by hand to imprint the obverse (left die) and
reverse (right die) of the coin.
In England from the time of the Norman invasion (1066 ad), silver was the main metal
used for hammering. Gold was coined only regularly from 1344 and base
metal Farthings (see my web page for a copper farthing of James I) were
first issued during the early 1600s.
In 1662, with the introduction of Roettiers improved mill and screw
press, the hand hammering of coins was abandoned.
Pictured here is a beautiful 1603-04 hammered silver shilling of James I - found by Ken Nikodym.
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