Favorite broken coins

A recent post on a broken coin got me thinking about some of my favorite broken coins. This Fel Temp (Constans? Constantius? 2.9g) is a favorite of mine for it's weight and the strike and design on both obverse and reverse - unusually high relief and artistic design. The jagged edges of the coin reinforce the drama and violence of the reverse design.

My best guess: Constantius II AE3. D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right / FEL TEMP REPARATIO, soldier standing left, spearing bearded horseman, hair in two braids, who is reaching backwards.

I thought it would be fun to see other people's favorite broken coins.

 

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Wow! The artistry on that coin is tremendous without even using the phrase "for the type"! Maybe @randygeki can dig up a die match. I guess that is wishful thinking though given the number of dies that must've been required for this massive output.

 

Great detail for the type. This example must not have seen much circulation.

 

This one's my favorite because it illustrates the lack of quality control at the mint in Gallienus' day. It's not broken because of post-mint damage or the effects of corrosion over the centuries -- it's quite well-preserved, actually -- it was broken at the mint when the flan-casting sprue was removed in an exuberant manner.

 

Oh, I have a few...

 

Very cool R.C.! if I understand the minting process: the flan was cast - molten metal poured into a mold with channels where the metal flowed (resulting in flans connected by sprues e.g. a non-Roman, middle eastern stone mold in the attached picture)

and then the guy making the flans enthusiastically clipped a big chunk of the flan along with sprue. Looking at the flan - with a bite out of it - he shrugged and said, "good enough", and placed it in the pile of flans for striking (striking of coins is illustrated in this picture of coins being struck from a 19th century edition of a text by Publius Tacitus (circa A.D. 98)).

Sound right?

 

Exactly!!

 

Absolutely beautiful strike on that FEL TEMP @Sulla80. A great piece to a collection even though it is broken.

@TypeCoin971793 it hurts my heart to see all those broken knives

 

@TypeCoin971793, I like your photo of "knife money" - and am curious to know: who made it, when & why is it a favorite?

 

This is a wonderful coin just as it is... full of the character that makes such things truly historic... and from one with a background in such arts, I want to compliment you on a beautifully cleaned and conserved example. Bravo.

 

Thanks @Roman.Coins I cannot say that I did anything special to clean this one, just wiped it off with a damp cloth - in a pile of really ugly dirty coins, this just fell out in that condition.

 

I have a few broken ones - they can usually be had at a deep discount, and if there are significant amounts of lettering or devices to be seen, I consider them collectable.

Not quite broken, but a smashed Lucilla denarius:


My only silver elephant, Philip the Arab:


Gordian III

 

@Marsyas Mike I like the smashed Lucilla - found that way or modern accident? Does it hold together like that? I agree - collectable!

 

Which one(s)? The answer depends on the type.

 

The last one in your post - I also liked the spade just below nero.

 

I wouldn't have been able to afford this type in this condition (detail) if not for the break.

 

Fantastic strike and artistry on your op coin @Sulla80 (and cool name. Sulla is one of my favorite ancient bad boys).
My bestest busteded coins are probably my Augustus and Balbinus (though I do have a pretty neat Maximinus Thrax that was shattered in the mail, I haven't taken a pic).

 

Thank you Sulla80 - I am glad to say that the Lucilla came that way, and that I wasn't the one who smashed it. It holds together - and as far as I can tell it isn't glued - I put it in a holder and try not to handle it - it appears to be ready to fall apart if you look at it wrong!

It was part of a big eBay lot from last year - the other stuff was (mostly) in better shape:

 

The break in this case was welcome since it brought a $100+ coin down to $15. Probably the one and only time I'll ever be able to get Elymais silver for 15 bucks.


Kamnaskires V, drachm, van't Haaff type 9.1

 

Interesting! I have a small amount of experience striking coins and found that if I overheated the flans (heated to red hot), they cracked into jagged bits like this coin. Perhaps the flan for this Lucilla denarius was overheated prior to striking. Maybe it has looked like this its whole life, at least to some extent.

Here's an example of fantasy struck on a too-hot flan:


TIFFILY, Tiphonia
c. 5th century BCE
AR 16, 7.5 gm
Obv: Forepart of winged iguana left
Rev: Monogram within dotted square, incuse
Ref: SNG Tiffily 5
Most of the coins, including this one, are of terrible workmanship. One would think that these mint workers had no idea what they were doing. Clearly there was no quality control.