Minting, coining or coinage is the process of manufacturing coins using a kind of stamping, the process used in both hammered coinage and milled coinage. This "stamping" process is different from the method used in cast coinage.

A coin die (archaically spelt dye) is one of the two metallic pieces that are used to strike a coin, one per each side of the coin. A die contains an inverse version of the image to be struck on the coin. Striking a coin refers to pressing an image into the blank metal disc, or planchet, and is a term descended from the days when the dies were struck with hammers to deform the metal into the image of the dies.

Modern dies made out of hardened steel are capable of producing hundreds of thousands of coins before they are retired and defaced. Scissel is the scrap produced in the punching of coin blanks from a continuous strip of metal.

Prior to the modern era, coin dies were manufactured individually by hand by artisans known as engravers. In demanding times, such as the crisis of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century, dies were still used even when they became worn or even when they cracked. The die that was on the hammer side, usually the reverse (back), tended to wear out first. The planchets (blanks) were usually hot prior to striking. On some Roman provincial coins, some believe the tongs used to move the heated planchet left permanent center indentations on the finished coins. Others attribute these marks to surfacing tools used as a part of planchet preparation.

Experimental archeology suggests that a lower die could be expected to last for up to 10,000 strikes depending on the level of wear deemed acceptable. Upper dies seem to have a far greater range of lives with usable lives ranging from just over 100 strikes to nearly 8000 being reported. Combining archaeological evidence with historic records suggests ancient coin producers (in this case the Amphictions at Delphi) could get as many as 47,000 strikes out of an individual die.

Medieval engravers were guild members who created coins.

The vast majority of medieval coins were cold struck; the planchets were not heated. While medieval coin dies were largely made of iron, some dies have been discovered with a small region at the face of the die which is made of steel. As technology and the economy changed over the course of the Middle Ages, so did the techniques used to create coin dies. While most ancient coin dies used engraving heavily, early medieval coinage was dominated by dies created mostly from punches, which displace the metal of the die instead of removing it. There is evidence of medieval die cutters using engraving tools to lay out designs, and to create detailed punches. However, engraving on the face of the die did not become commonplace until the early Renaissance.

Detailed records exist for the Venetian mint. Located in the heart of the city, the Zecca of Venice served as a hub for commercial life and patronage at the time. In the late Middle Ages, the dies used to create tornesellos lasted as follows: "hammer" die, ~17,000 strikes; "anvil" die, 36,000 strikes. The mint made an average of 20,000 coins per day, so they were making one hammer die a day and one anvil die every other day. The "hammer" dies wore out quicker because they tended to be smaller and were hit directly with a hammer, leading to severe mushrooming on the tops. The Venetian Mint's most important coin was the Silver Grosso, a coin modeled after coins produced in the Byzantine Mint. It was from the Byzantium mint that the Venetian mint was modeled after. The decline of the Silver Grosso began under the rule of doge Andrea Dandolo in 1343. His rule saw the rise of the Gold Ducat, almost eliminating the silver Grosso entirely.