Lucilla Denarius--worn die resulted in serious flow lines!

One from Frank's latest auction. The reverse die was worn out and this resulted in some serious flow lines!

Post your examples of prominent flow lines, Lucilla coins, etc. Anything you feel is relevant.


Lucilla, AD 164-169.
Roman AR denarius, 3.11 g, 18.1 mm, 7 h.
Rome, AD 166-169.
Obv: LVCILLA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: HILARITAS, Hilaritas standing left, holding long palm and cornucopiae.
Refs: RIC 769; BMCRE 338; Cohen/RSC 28; RCV 5484; MIR 31; CRE 251.

 

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She was a looker and it shows on the coin. Here is a bronze of her sister-in-law Crispina I believe. I read that she hated her very much according one account anyway. Too bad they fell from such a noble move of A.Pius to have his sons be the first co-rulers of the empire. It all seems to devolve from there hating and killing each other. Some of you know this history way better than myself however.Power is a difficult dragon to handle.

This was wrongly attributed as faustina Jr. I bought for my class.Haven't fully attributed it correctly yet.

 

Nice addition, RC.

 

Those are some mesmerizing flow lines! If you stare at it long enough it almost looks like they are moving!

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I don't have a flow line fetish myself, but I understand it. A question, though: why are the best flow lines almost always on 2nd century denarii? Part of the explanation is high silver content. (Too much copper and you don't get as much metal flow.) Is the rest of the explanation that, unlike in the Republic and 1st century, dies (esp. reverse dies) were allowed to get very worn, as on your example?

I only have Lucilla in bronze (AE as):

 

Here's an adorable Lucilla denarius. The flow lines are subtle and contribute to its radiant appearance.



Lucilla
Empress CE 163-169, wife of Lucius Verus
AR denarius, 19 mm, 3.25 gm
Obv: LVCILLA AVGVSTA; draped bust right
Rev: PVDICITIA; Pudicitia, veiled, standing left, with right hand preparing to draw a veil across her face (or had she just drawn the veil off her face?), left hand at side
Ref: RIC III 780


Totally looks like:

 

SALVS reverse, I think:

 

There are too many things we don't understand but in this and many other similar questions I see two major points to consider. One is technology. Perhaps someone discovered a better way of hardening reverse dies so they lasted longer or showed age in other ways. Perhaps certain alloy components made a difference. Just because two coins are 80% silver does not mean the other 20% was the same. Did the mint include an intentional material for a purpose they understood and we don't. The other is standards. Did the mint under Commodus simply not care that coins from worn dies would sell for less in 2018?

The other question of this type that bothers me is why are there more die clashes in some periods than others. The obvious answer is that the mint bosses under Claudius II and Elagabalus did not consider it necessary to throw out a clashed die while another boss made it clear that damaged dies were not to be used. We can not expect to know but it is fun to guess. Obviously more errors will be made when the staff is forced to work faster to meet unreasonable production goals. That does not mean that the defective coins were let out of the mint just because they were made.

 

These things are notorious for worn dies:

 

And look at the flow lines extending from the letters to the rim!

 

Nice Lucilla Roman Collector, mine only denarius of Lucilla is PVDICITIA.

 

Thanks RC, maybe you already told me that some months ago.

 

Here's one of hubby Lucius V with some serious flow lines.

That's almost hypnotic!

 

Watch Hilaritas. She is happy. You too will become happy if you send all your coins to TIF.​