Degrading dies

[Jeremy]

Do you have two or more coins struck from the same die(s) that demonstrate a dramatic change in die condition? Please share comparison photos that include die wear, faults, and other forms of degradation!

[Ocatarinetabellatchitchix]

Here are two Victorinus’ imitations minted with the same pair of dies. On the first one the dies were brand new, on the other one you can notice some general wear + the strike was not as sharp as on the first coin.

 

 

[Ryro]

Here is my coin and two nicer example, plus a great gif with my crab scuttling away from @Sulla80, were you can see the degradation:

Creperius, Rocus
Denarius. 68 BC. Uncertain mint. (Ffc-657). (Craw-399-1b). (Cal-522). Obv: Bust of the back of the Sea Goddess to the right, C to the right, to the left crab. Rev .: Neptune with trident, in biga pulled by hippocampi to the right, below Q CREPER M (F) / ROCVS. Ag. 3.61 g. Usually struck off center. Very scarce. VF.
Ex: Tauler & Fau

[Deinomenid]

@Ryro fantastic crab! I may have watched that quite a few times!

Here's an early Syracuse didrachm before and after. Mine's the after...

 

[NewStyleKing]

What do you hope to learn? It is reckoned that the difference in the intensity of a strike on the bottom (obverse) was much less by that caused on upper die. You will see it is often guessed that for tetradrachm production that 20000 obverses and 10000  reverses could be produced from the respective dies.. Using figures like this people like F.deCallatay try to quantise coin production data. But a simple inspection of say, the plates of Thompson's NSSCA will apparently show that the quality of the strikes deteriorate and carelessness creeps in, you'll see all kinds of die damage and deterioration... pretty coins was not that important. The workers were most probably slaves and the quantity over quality pressure was more their concern. Poorer quality dies, poorer quality blanks also would factor. People like Ted Buttrey were very skeptical of quantised production calculations. When the heat is on, wrong reverses are mated with the wrong obverses producing a mule! Sometimes it's probably deliberate, where a die is good enough to to use on a different reverse die. Transfer obverse dies are very useful in numismatics for internal chronology studies etc. Indeed some dies were apparently re-engraved just to squeeze out a few more coins from a die! The best information comes from the short lived stephanophores of the mid 2nd century BC, say of Kyme, Myrina, Magnesia ad Meander and most obviously The Athens NewStyle where the reverses seem to changed with new magistrates every year. The study of how many obverses to reverses shows the minting pressure better than poorly produced coins!

[zadie]

All four of these coins were struck with the same obverse die. By the end, a die break almost as large as the design itself had developed

[NewStyleKing]

Maybe the die cutter had cut so many reverses that he got carpal tunnel and couldn't do anymore obverses? What do we learn from it though? What's the book?

[Jeremy]

I believe these are the only coins in my collection with a reverse die match. They were struck in Alexandria Troas in Asia Minor between 251 and 253 AD under the rule of Roman emperor Trebonianus Gallus.

The Tyche obverse is significantly rarer (2 examples in RPC) than the obverse with the emperor's bust (11 specimens in RPC). The turreted head of Tyche represents a city and its fortune.

The reverse shows an interesting mythological scene - a reconciliation between Apollo Smintheus (Apollo, Lord of mice, essentially) and Krinis, his high priest, in the company of a herdsman named Ordes. Apollo has presumably quelled the plague of mice he previously set loose on crops in revenge for some affront by Krinis. In the upper field appears a small, pierced animal, described as "uncertain animal" in the references, but quite possibly a mouse. I don't have the resources to dig into the underlying myth, so I can't tell you if the animal is supposed to be a mouse or not. It certainly looks like one in example #2, though.

Troas, Alexandria, Pseudo-autonomous, Time of Trebonianus Gallus Æ
251-253 AD
Obverse: CO ALEX TRO; Turreted and draped bust of Tyche right; vexillum to left.
Reverse: COL AVG / TROAD; Apollo, nude to the waist, seated left, holding arrows with his extended right hand, his left hand rests on seat; to left, the priest Krinis, nude to the waist, seated right; at his feet, forepart of hound sniffing the ground; between Apollo and Krinis, the herdsman Ordes standing right, holding pedum; above, uncertain animal pierced by arrow.
References: RPC IX 473 (2 specimens) var. (obv. legend); Bellinger A481.
24mm; 6.70g

Troas, Alexandria, Pseudo-autonomous, Time of Trebonianus Gallus Æ
251-253 AD
Obverse: IMP VIB TREB GALLVS AV; Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right.
Reverse: COL AVG / TROAD; Apollo, nude to the waist, seated left, holding arrows with his extended right hand, his left hand rests on seat; to left, the priest Krinis, nude to the waist, seated right; at his feet, forepart of hound sniffing the ground; between Apollo and Krinis, the herdsman Ordes standing right, holding pedum; above, uncertain animal pierced by arrow.
References: RPC IX 413 (11 specimens); Bellinger A402; A.R. Bellinger, "The Late Bronze of Alexandria Troas," ANSMN 8 (1958), Type 20, pl. VII, 20; SNG Hunter 1289.
24 mm; 7.5g

 

 

I was impressed by the animated GIFs shard by @Ryro and @Deinomenid so I attempted a couple of my own. Does it look like a mouse to you?

 

Edited March 17 by Jeremy