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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1015580, member: 19463&quot;]Ancient coins were struck from dies individually cut by hand without the use of mechanical duplication as is done today.&nbsp; Large issues of coins might have had hundreds of dies with some rare coins all come from one die set.&nbsp; It is slightly unusual to find more than one coin struck from the same dies but with searching, it can be done.&nbsp; My photo shows something a bit more unusual.&nbsp; The six coins (Septimius Severus, Emesa mint 194 AD) were all struck from the same obverse die but all six reverses are different types.&nbsp; It appears the mint was rotating reverses between obverses.&nbsp; My suspicion is that the two dies were secured separately at night so no one person would have access to both dies needed to strike coins unofficially but I have no proof of this theory.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Relatively few collectors pay much attention to die identity.&nbsp; I&#039;m unusual.&nbsp; I hope to add others to this set of six but that will require luck.&nbsp; Six is nowhere close to a record for this sort of thing as I am aware of one obverse die of Septimius Severus that is known with at least a dozen reverses (some of the same type but different dies).&nbsp; If any of you have a coin using this obverse die, I would love to hear of it.&nbsp; Its distinctive marks are a stray line in the L at obverse left and the rather weakly cut nose on the portrait.&nbsp; After you look at enough of these things, some dies become familiar making it easier to find matches. </p><p><br /></p><p>Most of us collect ancients generally but after a while many develop specialty interests.&nbsp; Some specialize in owning mint state coins.&nbsp; I can&#039;t be that picky on grade if I am to find the dies I seek.&nbsp;&nbsp; I began being interested in Septimius Severus Eastern mint denarii in the mid-1960&#039;s.&nbsp; Finding these six required looking at thousands of coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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