What quality control?

A shoddy Gallienus

 

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Quality control issues are most typically (on average) related to the general need for immediate coinage. The greater the need, often the lower the quality. When one needs to produce as much coinage as possible in a very small time frame, quality suffers. I have this example, where obviously the minters were going so fast they did not center the flan on the dies properly. The photo doesn't show how extreme it is, but I think you get the idea:

 

Perfect coins may be beautiful and bring rewards in the marketplace but these really awful ones are much more educational when it comes to technical features of mint operation. Ken's Tetricus is terrible and wonderful at the same time. It gives a 3D view of the shape of the die that struck it and shows without doubt that the obverse was on the punch die while the reverse was on the flat anvil. This is the opposite of the common practice of earlier periods and explains why we find reverse brockages of the Tetricus period since coins got stuck in the obverse punch and went unnoticed when the next coin was struck. This Comes Avg is a reverse type used by Victorinus.

 

Personally, when Rome moved off minting Denarii... coinage went downhill.

They pressed a little too hard on the Cookie Dough!

Samnium Aesernia AE21 263-240 BCE HN Italy 430 Vulcan - Biga


Need to trim the Sprue (actually it is the GATE)

Sicily Syracuse Timoleon Third Deocracy 344-317 BCE AE Hemidrachm Zeus Thundrbolt

 

Tetricus II, off-center, esp. the reverse.

 

Here is one I have in my collection/ a modern milled badly struck AV Souverain d'or 1749 Antwerpen Mint (cracked dies) on obverse
Austrian Netherlands
Maria Theresia 1740-80

 

I just saw a nice display of ancient 'error coins' at the Eretz Israel museum in Tel Aviv. It was hard to get pictures through the glare on the glass, but here are a couple of striking examples (apologies for bad pun as well as bad pictures).

 

but I liked your pun . . .