Can I see some ancient coins with die matches, possibly even similar die wear diagnostics? I find it fascinating when a coins can be directly linked to another!
This subject comes up occasionally. Here are some threads where I have shared some die matches before:- https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-latest-sept-sev-imp-ca-cos-ii.296314/ https://www.cointalk.com/threads/half-of-a-rare-coin.324321/#post-3199706 https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ever-buy-duplicates-on-purpose.302180/page-2#post-2840528
I'm not sure @Roman Collector has every posted a coin without an accompanying die matched coin (maybe a slight exaggeration). Do a search for his posts. Die matches are common for some types and series of coins, uncommon for others. It generally depends on the quantity struck of any given series.
Die matches do add fun to some series of less common coins but rarely come up in the series most people collect due to the large number of dies. Die ID fans should enjoy the coins of Syracuse as cataloged by Boehringer. https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/an...hringer__coins_of_syracuse/40492/Default.aspx You will never collect the 733 links he illustrates but the series is fun because of the great variety from die to die rather than having to look for fly specks as we do on many coins. I enjoy die links and have a page on the subject: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/dielink.html
It is possible to do a die study without owning the coins yourself. I own none of the pictured coins. There was a big group of Apollonia Pontika drachms with strange blunders including two dots on Medusa's tongue. A huge number of examples of this die showed up at the same time, which sometimes means a counterfeit. So I was concerned. I worried these were poor copies of a coin in the British Museum collection that had been recently been published in an SNG. http://www.s391106508.websitehome.c..._Reply.php?Series=SNGuk&AccessionNo=0901_0160 I found many examples from the same die. I made a series showing the snakes slowly deforming. The most deformed example looked a great deal like the example in the British Museum. Here is an animation showing that process, made by combining some of the best examples I could find I suspect it started out being re-engraved over another example. That's why it looks like there is doubling in the snakes. The coin wasn't struck twice. New snakes were engraved over the old ones, poorly. (Note: There may be cast counterfeits from this die now.)
It seems perfectly within reason that some finds may have been 'mint bags' direct from the mint and all made the same day. From such, we would expect many die duplicates. When a hoard is assembled of coins removed from circulation, die matches would not be expected in quantity. Another 'problem' with die ID work is that some dies are easier to spot than others and lead us to think they are more common when actually they are just more noticeable. An example of this is my Septimius Severus die with a particulary weak nose. I was able to spot with no difficulty six different reverse dies. Were the obverse lacking in a red flag characteristic, it might have been easier to overlook specimens when shopping coins offered. What I find interesting about this set is that I have never seen a second reverse die of any of the reverse types used with this die. There are two Victory dies but one shows her on a globe rather than a ground line. t would seem that one obverse was used with six different reverse types for a reason other than needing more dies but I have no idea why. Perhaps each reverse was the mark of one team or one day of the week or... I also find it interesting that I failed to find any of these reverse dies used with other obverse dies but other dies of most of the types are found with other obverse dies. Die studies can provide many questions beyond simply whether or not a die is a match or not. It can be fun to follow the life cycle of a die from when fresh and new until when worn or falling apart. I enjoy the two Julia Domna coins below. The top one was struck before the reverse was damaged by the die clash that shows on the lower specimen. I doubt those who define collecting as getting one coin per ruler have read this far but there most certainly are many ways to enjoy the hobby that will appeal to only a few of us. Die studies are something that I find interesting.
Here are three double die matched coins. They show different states of die deterioration. Look closely at the "T" in TRP COS (reverse exergue) to see what I mean.
Interesting, all In my Divi series, I have an obverse die match for two Severus Alexander antoniniani showing two different reverse types : altar and eagle. I was very happy to put them together It's not at all unusual to find die matches in these series. Joaquim Blay has made a tree of them in his study of the series : http://qblay.com/DiviSeries/English/show-links2.htm Q
I actually upgraded one coin this year to another example from the same die pair. I should've kept the old coin long enough to take some side by side pictures but had to sell it to finance the upgrade: Here's another one I found this year. Only two die pairs are known for my rare "88b Spearhead" sextans struck in Sardinia. Mine is the coin in the middle with the black background which is an obverse die match to the top coin(from the NAC sale of the JD collection) and a reverse die match to the bottom coin(from the NAC sale of the RBW Collection) and the only known example that pairs the two previously known die pairs. It's also probably the worst example of the group but it does prove that if you're doing a die study every coin is valuable. Worn examples are just as valuable as mint state ones for finding die links, more important even because the mint state examples are easier to find pictures of but they may only represent a tiny portion of surviving examples.
My rule of thumb is that the standard online resources such as acsearch, when added to common 1990s sales not yet online (such as early NAC or CNG) typically yield about 5 examples of any given die, and if one researched as thoroughly as one can older catalogues and musuem resources one might reach 10 examples per die. That is a very rough indication of survival rate of coins in decent condition in published sources. For a rare type, with only a few known dies, getting die matched examples is actually the norm, such as the spearhead symbol Roman Republican sextantes above. For common types especially where only the best coin get illustrated, it's mroe difficult to find matches both becaise you have to wade through many more coins and because fewer examples are illustrated. Hence collectors of Late Roman Bronzes, where the vast majority of coins never make it onto Numisbids or ACsearch, find die matches rarely, and are surprised that for Roman Republican collectors matches are very normal because our RR coins are typically higher value therefore make it into the online resources. Its not that die matches on good Greek silver and Roman Republican are more common. Its just that they are easier to spot because the coins are rarer and a higher proportion of them can be seen online
