Imperial Indulgence: From Wroxeter's Clay to Confectionary Chocolate Coins
Sian Squire (Shrewsbury College) and Nina Rinke (Worcester Sixth Form College)
Chocolate coins of Augustus
Sian: Each year, at Warwick Teachers day, we are given the opportunity to hear lecturers speak about aspects of the OCR A level syllabus that we may not have heard of before and, just as importantly, network with other teachers who share the same modules as each other. Nina Rinke and I teach A levels at Worcester Sixth Form and Shrewsbury College and regularly exchange ideas and resources about aspects of the Imperial Image module that we both teach. In 2019 we both sat in a lecture room in Warwick and listened to Clare Rowan talk about the Augustan coins that were on the syllabus, allowing us to hold the originals held in the Warwick teaching collection. Coins are such a useful tool for understanding the Ancient World, mixing visual images and epigraphy and give us where geographical and political messages that are not always found in other written sources.
As part of a birthday present to Sian, some Shrewsbury students made some Augustan coins created and printed on their homemade 3D printer and painted them, something they regularly did with their Warhammer gaming figures!
3D Printed coins , Prima Porta Statue and Livia's Head from the OCR Imperial Image Syllabus made by students of Shrewsbury College
The patterns for the comet coin was found freely available on line here. These can be printed by students on their own 3D printers or on college 3D printers. In Shrewsbury I have 3D printed statues of Augustus, Julius Caesar and even part of the Elgin Marbles. These have all been made by either students or staff here.
In 2024, Warwick hosted the Classical Association conference and I went along to a session about coins. There I was shown a clay mould from Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury, which was used to counterfeit coins in the Roman period. It was seeing that that made me realise how simple it would be to create my own moulds of the 3D printed coins I had on the shelf at college.
A Roman clay mould from Wroxeter near Shrewsbury used to counterfeit coins
A different presentation at that conference gave me the idea to use those moulds to create chocolate coins of Augustus. All I had to do was use the 3D printed coins and a silicon mould kit found on Amazon, press the comet coin mould into it , get a clear impression of the coin and allow it to set. Once the mould is made, it can be used to pour chocolate into it and pop it in the fridge to cool. When the mould is made, it can be used over again.
Silicon Moulds of the Augustus Comet Coin which appears on the OCR Syllabus
Showing Nina at Worcester Sixth Form, she loved the idea and took it one step further….
Nina: I have always been a cardboard, glue and scissors kind of person. My students have over the years created very impressive card board box Ara Pacis and Forum of Augustus models. After years of colour photocopying class sets of prescribed coins (which didn’t do my printing budget any good...) and then painstakingly cutting out and sticking them onto cardboard rounds to enable every student to have their own set for revision, last year my colleague Laura Nevin, Head of IT and Computing, purchased a 3D printer and offered them and her expertise to other departments. We quickly produced a classroom set of Imperial Image coins each of which took about 10 minutes to print! Students also contributed their Prima Porta prints.
I had seen Sian’s wonderful clay moulds and I started thinking about creating my own in order to make coins and tokens I could give out at Open Events for
visitors to take home. So I googled, searched Etsy etc and came across candle moulds of Roman busts and columns, made of silicone and available to buy at quite exorbitant prices. I had been using food grade silicone moulds for sweets and cakes before, and Laura confirmed that her printer would be able to produce such moulds. The task was to produce a mould that would allow me to make a few at a time to have enough to give out as gifts.
It was not a quick job, the mould for six coins took a few hours to print, but the result was fantastic. It takes about 15 minutes to pour and cool six coins.
We are making the reverse mould as we speak and will soon have comet coin chocolate sandwiches. And yes, they work with jelly, for boiled sweets, and soap.
Having now ventured into the world of food, we’re baking wedding cake style Mausoleum cakes next. We’ve already made some in cardboard (I’m still not done with old-fashioned 😊).