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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3235495, member: 19463&quot;]Perhaps we should mention one other factor in dating coins: lying. Just because a coin says something on it does not mean that data is accurate.&nbsp; The one that come to mind first is the number of English kings whose names were something else that inscribed their coins &#039;Henry&#039;.&nbsp; Of course we know to allow for name/titles like Caesar and Arsakes.&nbsp; Who would care to explain the late Roman Vota dating like VOTA X MVLTI XX?&nbsp; Are coins with very restrictive dating combinations accurate to the point that the mint stopped using a perfectly good die or did they keep striking until the die was worn out?&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In my specialty, we see two types of Alexandria mint denarii in the name of Commodus.&nbsp; One has a normal looking lifetime obverse and reverse while the other has the same obverse and a Consecratio reverse.&nbsp; Which of these were struck before Commodus died?&nbsp; There are Alexandria mint denarii of Pertinax that copy lifetime issues of the Rome mint.&nbsp; Were they made while Pertinax lived or later when the mint was not sure who was going to win the civil war or even later when Septimius Severus was honoring his position as successor to Pertinax?&nbsp; You can guess but showing proof is not as easy.&nbsp; Other specialists will know details of this nature from their specialties. </p><p><br /></p><p>When I first became a father, I was amazed at how my daughter had to learn everything and would stare at her hand as she realized it was attached to her.&nbsp; Coins were like that.&nbsp; The makers of the first ones had to learn what it was that made a coin a coin and what was good to include on that coin.&nbsp; Dating came in many ways.&nbsp; Many coin makers saw no reason for a date of any kind.&nbsp; A few added month dates.&nbsp; Today, we expect coins made in 2018 to have that date on the coin.&nbsp; When was the last time the US mint intentionally made coins that had incorrect dates?&nbsp; 1804 dollars are well known even to non collectors of US like me.&nbsp; I know nothing since that but the point is we have to allow for a little error in any of our figures.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Guesses are never bad unless someone takes their guesses so seriously that they lose sight on the fact that they are, however educated, guesses.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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