The Romans began minting coins for hundreds of years before Christ. Most of the ancient coins that are around today were made from 200 AD to 400 AD.

The Romans usually designed the coin with a head profile on one side and goddesses, ships, lions, temples, soldiers, chariots, battle scenes, etc. on the reverse. The coins were made of silver, copper, or gold. The gold coins were worth more than the silver or copper. Coins were the size of a dime to the size of a half dollar, but thicker.

We enjoyed designing coins. First we cut circles from poster board. We cut out shapes from card board and glued them onto the poster board circles. We covered the circle with aluminum foil. On the raised areas, which were formed from the card board, we added glitter. The coins we made don't look like real, but we learned about design.