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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 8101085, member: 19463&quot;]Eyes are the hardest part of a portrait to cut.&nbsp; Remember they had to leave a high place in the die so the eye would be recessed naturally.&nbsp; Not planning ahead would make the eye stick out on the struck coins.&nbsp; There are some mints that never really got the hand of natural eyes. There are also some individual dies that just failed to make the eye look right even if it did not stick out.&nbsp; Some dies were the work of master craftsmen; others suggest an apprentice who was learning.&nbsp; Like everything else, it seems there were coins made on what we call &#039;Monday morning&#039; or &#039;Friday evening&#039; (not suggesting those people worked a schedule like that).&nbsp; Below is a coin of Clodius Albinus from Rome mint in 193 AD.&nbsp; On this die, the cutter just blew it.&nbsp; Once the eye was cut too high, there was no fixing it. If I were the boss, I might have told him to trash it and start over but there was always pressure to turn out coins on a schedule and some dies that were not top quality had to be used.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1408681[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Regarding Titus:&nbsp; Yes the two men resembled each other but, with some experience, you can develop a feel for which was which.&nbsp; I recently sold this Vespasian version showing more or less the same reverse with COS VIII (dad had been Consul more often that year).&nbsp; Other than being a left facer (both came both ways) and not having the T, you might see the older man looking a bit more gruff.&nbsp; The easy answer is to avoid coins missing that part of the legend.&nbsp; Note on this die, the cutter really had to squeeze in the AVG at the end of the legend.&nbsp; When this coin was made, Titus had not yet become Augustus.&nbsp; &#039;Plan ahe<font size="3">a</font><font size="1">d</font>&#039; should have been a motto at the mint.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1408682[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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