Any dies ever been recovered?

I'm curious if anyone on the Forum (e.g., ancient coin devotees) have ever heard of a coin die being recovered? It seems interesting that no dies have survived but millions of coins have survived roughly 2,000 years. If so, it would be a very cool archaeological item.

 

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Some have survived, but they are rare. Sometimes they come up for sale, like this one from CNG which sold for $9,000:


BAKTRIA, Greco-Baktrian Kingdom. Demetrios I Aniketos. Circa 200-185 BC. Hardened Æ die for AR Tetradrachm Reverse. Dimensions of reverse die: die face 34 mm in diameter; die shank 39 mm at the face, tapering to 30 mm in diameter at mid point and widening to 40 mm at the base. Weight: 292.70 grams. Coin face is reverse of tetradrachm of Demetrios I with Bopearachchi 1F monogram. O. Bopearachchi, “Deux documents exceptionels en numismatique indo-grecque,” Cahiers Numismatiques48.189 (September 2011), no. II and figs. 2-4 (this die). VF for type, die face well-preserved with brown and earthen patina, broken shank and stress cracks from striking, 1 mm drill hole in shank for metallurgical analysis. Extremely rare.

This reverse die is the only known Greco-Baktrian die. Owing to the condition of the die with its broken striking face and stress cracks, Bopearachchi suggests that this die may have struck only a handful of coins before it broke, since to date no link with any actual coins has been found. In the near future, Bopearachchi and Maryse Blet-Lemarquand will publish a detailed metallurgical analysis of this die.

 

Nice die @Ken Dorney . Yeah, I'd imagine most probably were melted and recycled by the mint when they wore down, so probably only a handful survive.

Incidentally, some counterfeit dies from antiquity seem to have survived from forgers' mints out in the deserts of Egypt.

 

that would be a neat item to own..

 

Thank you @Ken Dorney ! It's great to see a surviving die example.

 

http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/Archive/Another-forger-in-north-Hampshire/8?&id=334&type=a

https://balkancelts.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/the-mother-matrix/

 

One Byzantine die survives. https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=334726

 

I didn't see any dies but in the National Museum of Rome they had casting molds used by ancient forgers which I thought was pretty fascinating.

 

More than 100 ancient dies survive, but most seem to be counterfeiters dies.
Moneta 2, edited by Lucia Tranaini and Alessia Bolis, "Conii e scene di coniazione" is a book with a dozen articles, the key ones in English, on the subject.

 

Has anyone seen @Bing?

 

MY CHINESE POUR-CAST MOLD:


China
Wu Zhu coin clay mold
unearthed in SanMenXia City in HeNan Province
full obverse impression partial second impression
probly H-8.6 110-90 BCE
Ex: @TypeCoin971793 - Hey, and that is even his grubby paw in the pic...

 

And speaking of Chinese moulds, this is where we find the vast majority of surviving moulds as most were made from clay, disposable and used only once. They were broken up when the coins were removed. This is a group I have:

Southern Dynasties, The Song, Emperor Wen, 420 - 479 AD
Fragments for Si Zhu (Four Zhu) coins.

 

Thanks Ken for the history lesson.

 

I have read but have not seen a picture of a die of the Crawford 96/1 ROMA incuse victoriatus in the Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid. Most known "Roman Republic" dies are believed to be forgers' dies but this one is apparently linked to coins believed to be of good silver and given that it was likely struck in a military camp or occupied city in an active theater of the Second Punic War it may well have just been lost as the Roman position was overrun.

 

I have seen several forgers dies for sale or at auction. I bought these from CNG several years ago. I have seen several since.



I have an old fake EIDMAR denarius. It does not match the forger's die for a similar coin.

 

http://www.romancoins.info/Denominations.html

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Augustan Coin Dies

 

Here are some more, all Geto-Dacian "forgers'" dies transferred from Roman Republic denarii, though the Geto-Dacians struck coins in solid silver for local circulation, so the forgers' moniker is not necessarily completely accurate. These were found as part of a hoard near Tilișca, Romania

 

There was one that struck Tiberius denarii (namely the “tribute penny”) where one of the coins had gotten stuck onto the die. Supposedly the die was discarded because the coin could not be removed (there were scratch marks around the edge of the coin indicating that someone had tried removing it).

 

Here are some of my moulds. I have about three times as many because they are just so cool!!!



A sprue I have demonstrating how the mould worked.



A mother mould used to make wu zhu moulds.



Da Quan Wu Shi moulds



Not mine, but this spade mould is pretty cool.

 

Mould used to cast Qi knives (in the British Museum)