- Minting:
- Metals
- Finishes
- Enameling
- Plating
- Engraving
- Sizes & Shapes
- Stock Dies
- History of Coins
- Glossary
- Insights & Ideas
Engraving
Personalize Your Coin With Custom Engraving
Engraving allows you the opportunity to truly personalize your coin. Well-crafted words of encouragement, recognition, or appreciation etched permanently in metal can turn a coin into a keepsake that will be treasured for a lifetime. And in some cases, engraving may even be a more cost-effective option, since many of our stock dies feature a space for engraving.
Good On Budgets
Engraving not only lets you personalize each coin, but can actually save you money, too. That's because many of our stock dies - which are available to you at no cost - have been designed with engraving in mind. By choosing one of these engravable stock dies, you avoid the need to create two distinct dies for your custom coin. This cost effective option can result in considerable savings, especially for smaller orders.
In the European Middle Ages goldsmiths used engraving to decorate and inscribe metalwork. It is thought that they began to print impressions of their designs to record them. From this grew the engraving of copper printing plates to produce artistic images on paper, known as old master prints in Germany in the 1430s. Italy soon followed. Many early engravers came from a goldsmithing background. The first and greatest period of the engraving was from about 1470 to 1530, with such masters as Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer, and Lucas van Leiden.
