Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1821068, member: 42773&quot;]Well as you say, it depends on the series, and the mint. Early Nabataeans exhibit no sprues at all - in fact, they had adopted the Ptolemaic/Seleucid technology of lathe machining to adjust their flans. By the time of Aretas IV, however, the coins run the gamut from neat round pieces, to coins with sprues, and other coins whose flans were clearly stamped out of long sheets of metal, or even scrap.</p><p><br /></p><p>Silver coins of all cultures seem to exhibit no sprues at all, which makes sense if you think about it. Why would you cast flans out of a precious metal only to file some of it down?&nbsp; - you&#039;d have a bunch of silver dust carried away by the wind. When it comes to silver flans, I imagine the technique was to impress some semi-soft plaster with holes, and once the plaster dried, you would fill the holes with measured amounts of silver. This would give you more control over the weight of the coins and minimize loss at the adjustment stage.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in