From my last week buying spree, a little one @dougsmit will hopefully put an eye on It's somewhat a very modest URBS ROMA. At first, the main reasons for me to purchase it are the Lyon mint because it's only 40 miles away from where I stay, and it will nicely fit in my she-wolf subset. Urbs Roma, AE 3 Lyon mint, 1st officina, ca. AD 332 VRBS ROMA, Helmeted Roma left Anepigraph, She wolf suckling twins Remus and Romulus, two stars in field, Crescent dot PLG at exergue 2.86 gr Ref : Bastien # 221, RIC # 257 On closer examination (and with a magnifier because of poor sight) one can see the reverse being overstruck on an incuse obverse of the same coin, the remains of ROMA backwards and the rear of Roma's helmet being visible. I imagine (and may very well be wrong) the coin being struck a first time with the last but one coin still stuck on the reverse (mobile) die, thus with an incuse obverse in place of the reverse, then properly struck again after the former coin has been removed from the reverse die. That supposes the coin hasn't moved between the two strikes because I don't see any evidence of die shift on the obverse. Any other interpretation ? Thanks for your input Q
That's a very attractive example ---and overstruck as well !!! I'm sure Doug (and many others) will love that type and also have several others to share.
I have very strong opinions on the matter and have a page on the subject. There has been a lot of discussion on the possibilities of these being restruck brockages but my page shows what I consider good proof that they are what we call clashed dies. If the two dies were hammered together without a flan between them, the softer reverse die was damaged so all coins struck after that showed this anomaly. I encourage those interested to read my page. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/brock.html The short form proof is that it would be extremely unlikely to find two restruck brockages centered exactly alike but coins struck from clash damaged dies will all show the same placement of details. The image below shows two Julia Domna denarii with matching reverse incuse damage. Most clear s the DO and outline of the portrait. I suppose it is possible to claim any clash that is known from only one specimen might possibly be a restruck brockage but the only coin I have seen which I believe is a restruck brockage is this Magnentius which is a flipover double strike where the first strike was a brockage. You have to make several errors in a row to mess up a coin this badly. This coin was sent to me by a friend who knew it was the sort of thing that I would adore. Thanks again.
Cool die clash! Here's a die clash of a Julia Maesa. You can see the incuse and backwards outline of her bust on the reverse:
