This is a pretty basic question from a newbie, but it's bugged me for long enough: why are legends on some ancient coins so nicely done, very even, well-spaced, and aligned, while on others (like my Julia Domna coin) they look like whoever did them was late for something else? The portrait on my coin is so beautifully done and so lifelike, and then the legend looks so sloppy - surely this isn't the work of the same artist who did the portrait, is it? Is it known just how ancient coin dies were made?
I see absolutely no reason to assume on this or any other ancient coin that the entire die was cut by one worker. If I were running such an operation, I would have a master put the finishing touches on each portrait after it was rough cut by an apprentice. There could well be a legend staff as well as lower level specialists in border dots, hair, drapery, or even smoothing die surfaces and inscribing layout lines. If you proved you could do dots, they might let you do something more and work up to being allowed to do Imperial faces. I have a feeling the guy who cut those letters might have soon found himself holding reverse dies while the hammerman was striking them. Early Greek coins may have been done by 'artists' but later I am sure the operation was done by 'staff'. It is the only way you could cut the number of dies needed in a short time and insured there would be replacement masters when the current ones 'retired'.
That's very interesting, because I have been looking high and low for this exact portrait on any other Julia Domna coin, and have not found it (and I've looked at hundreds of them). Your theory is interesting because I have found one or two portraits that were very close to mine, but with subtle differences - subtle, but apparent. They were very close and looked to me like the same artist cut them, or whoever cut them was using the same reference that he did...but those subtle differences were there.
Yup. I'm with you and Doug here. I highly doubt the person who designed such a "severe" face (couldn't help myself with such an easy pun right thar) for your dazzling Julia Domna would have written that FELIX like a soldier on his second night of furlough.
Whether the dies were the product of one hand or a large staff, finding exact die matches requires some looking. Some rare coins were made from just one die set but most used dozens/hundreds. My photo below shows pairs of Severan obverse matches from the earlier period that I collect. I looked at many hundreds of coins to find these. If you keep looking, you may get lucky and find another.
I'd love to find a perfect match for my coin, like you've done with so many of yours. I wonder what the engraving supervisor thought when he looked at the messy legend on mine. If nothing else, it's going to make confirming a die match a lot easier.
That is a fact. When going through a bag of a thousand denarii, the die matches that jump out are the ones with a very distinctive feature. Below is an obverse die of Septimius Severus woth a very weak nose which made it stand out and allowed me to recognize the six reverses I have using it. I suspect you could do something similar with many dies but it sure helps to have a distinctive difference.
Just a few notes on Imperial Roman Coin inscriptional lettering …………… Adaptation of Capitalis Monumentalis Letterforms by Coin Die Engravers The coin die engravers used a selection of chisels (burins), stamps and punches -- the quality of the lettering may therefor have depended to some extent on the skill of the tool makers. The size of the planchet and the quality of the coin metal would also be determining factors. Certainly blundered letters did occur as evidenced by the S in CAES and COS on the following almost mint state Quadrans of Claudius. Rendering well proportioned and constructed Capital Roman lettering has always demanded considerable skill and it seems there has always existed a disparity of skills among the crafstsmen who executed them -- regardless of the tools and media employed. CLAUDIUS, RIC Volume I, No. 88 Examples of early Roman Empire coin lettering Examples of later Empire (London mint) coin lettering Note particularly the (mostly) awkwardly formed letter “O” - always a difficult letter to render well - on several of the following coins
