Here's a fun topic, maybe. Post the worst, most misshaped, most ragged or ugly flans you have! This example is from @tenbobbit. The flan is just really gross all around, very uneven and quite sharp. However, it is a MASSIVE flan as well, a full 3mm or so wider than most comparable Gallienus ants. One of the few Gallienus ants with a full strike, with no missing components due to the extra large flan. Gallienus AE Antoninianus, ~23mm Siscia RIC 572
I don't think that's ugly at all. I like that it was large enough to show the whole coin. That's pretty rare, especially for a Gallienus.
I agree! I have gone through a dozen more so of gallienus, and NONE have had a full strike like this !
For a Gallienus that's pretty high quality! I love it when the entire dotted border fits on the flan. Here's flan that looks like it may have been three flans mashed together. It's roughly three times thicker and three times heavier than the usual of its type. Tetricus antoninianus, 17 x 19 mm, 3 mm thick, 6.4 gm RIC 90?
Here's another rather ragged flan, on a C-Gall this time. This is quite thick, so I don't know why it couldn't have flattened out a bit more
That broad flan is pretty neat. Here's another Gallienus, but on the other end of the scale... cute as a button, but missing alot of the legends. And more typically raggedy: You've seen this last one already, but it fits the thread request.
Thanks for sharing! 99% of the gallienus coins I’ve seen are missing most if not all the legend; they seem to be a victim of criminally undersized flans. My example above is one of the very few I’ve seen with a full strike, albeit on a ragged flan. that Tetricus of yours is truly savage! I like it!
Wow, I am surprised the all time winner has not made an appearance. While I grant you late 3rd century Roman can be rough, especially coins of the breakaway Gallic Empire, and 5th century can just be tiny, do any of them really hold a candle to 7-8th century Byzantium? They regularly look like Rorschach metal blobs, or quartered from previous coins, or simply just a mess. Sasanian copper pieces could get an honorable mention.
And occasionally flans are clipped with determination. Celtic, Southeast Gaul, Rhone Valley. Allobroges (?). Circa 70-10 BC. Potin Unit (15mm, 2.10g, 11h). Potins Au Long Cou type. Obv: Celticized head left with single headband. Rev: Horse left with raised tail, two pellets before. Ref: CCCBM III 373-377.
Byzantine flans from the period of the 600s are often so bad it is almost cheating to show one. This example is not very unusual: Constans II, 641-668. 29 - 24 mm. 4.89 grams. emperor standing facing with long beard Large M with "SCL" below (for Sicily). Sear 1108. Struck 652/3. Overstruck on another type of Constans II with a standing emperor (visible on the reverse) Sear 1107.
I'm not familiar with ancients at all. I assume that the often raggedy look is because there was no collar used when the coins were struck.
This one is not necessarily ugly, but the flan shape does is very weird! Islands off Troas, Tenedos. AR Hemidrachm, circa 550-470 B.C. Obverse: Archaic janiform head of Zeus and Hera. Reverse: T-E-N-E Labrys; all within linear square within incuse square. Reference: SNG Copenhagen 506-7 var. (differing legend arrangement). 1.81g; 16mm