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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2761708, member: 19463&quot;]When it comes to slamming out thousands of poorly made coins in minimal time with the least attention to detail, it is hard to beat the Judaean Widow&#039;s Mites.</p><p><br /></p><p>First is an Alexander Jannaeus with exceptional sprues remaining.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]634833[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The Antigonus Matthias below shows that the flans were cast in a two sided mould but the halves were in this case poorly aligned so the flan has half thickness ledges on opposing edges.&nbsp; Both of these coins might have looked more normal were it not for the poor centering of the strike which left our evidence intact.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]634834[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The flan for the Castulo AE28 below was cast in a one sided cup mould with tapering sides to facilitate removing of the blank.&nbsp; Most of these were struck harder than this one so the flan was spread and flattened more than here where we can still see the tapered edges on the reverse.&nbsp; The obverse flat surface is considerably larger and completely flat. [ATTACH=full]634837[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The same open cups were used for flans for Alexandrian drachms but the sides were rounded rather than tapered in a straight line. Therefore the coin shows an obverse with rounded over edges and a reverse that is flat. Antoninus Pius here shows why it is hard to get full obverse legends on these.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]634844[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>These variations of how coins were made is what we call &#039;fabric&#039;.&nbsp; I consider the study of fabric an extremely important part of collecting.&nbsp; In addition to all the interesting details to learn, we need to know which issues ALWAYS have some particular fabric clue and which ones were pretty much random.&nbsp; If you find a coin always made on a certain type flan that is not as it should be, you must consider it fake until proven good.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I love coins that show special fabric.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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