During the Roman Republic, moneyers were called tresviri aere argento auro flando feriundo, literally "three men for casting (and) striking bronze, silver (and) gold (coins)". This was a board of the college of the vigintiviri, or Board of twenty (later briefly the Board of twenty-six), vigintisexviri. The title was abbreviated III. VIR. AAAFF. or even III. VIR. A.P.F. (tresviri ad pecuniam feriundam) on the coinage itself. These men were collectively known as the tresviri monetales or sometimes, less correctly, as the triumviri monetales. The singular is triumvir monetalis. In English, they are most correctly called mint magistrates, since 'moneyers' may imply that they actually struck the coins themselves.
In the early times of the Republic, there are few records of any officers who were charged with the superintendence of the mint, and there is little respecting the introduction of such officers apart from a very vague statement from Pomponius. It was thought by Niebuhr that they were introduced at the time when the Romans first began to coin silver, in 269 BC, but modern authors consider this too precise a reading of Pomponius. It is known that a college of three was in existence c. 150 BC. A fourth magistrate was briefly added by Julius Caesar in 44 BC during a time when the mint output was particularly large (in preparation for a war against Parthia).
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