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<p>[QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 7401800, member: 110350"]See Jones, John Melville, <i>A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins</i> (London, Seaby, 1999) at pp. 194-195 [entry for "Minting"}:</p><p><br /></p><p>"The dies from which the coins were struck were made of bronze or of iron. Only a very few have survived and it is natural to suppose that if a die was still in usable condition when it was decided to cease striking coins with it, it would be deliberately defaced, or destroyed by melting it down, as a protection against misuse and to produce metal for another die. For this reason it may be suspected that those which are known today were stolen from the mints to which they belonged, or are the work of counterfeiters.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The engraving of dies was done with a burin*, a punch and a drill. Diamonds were sometimes used by gem engravers in the ancient world and may therefore also have been used to engrave the metal from which dies were made.</b> In some cases a hub may have been used to make a preliminary impression of a coin type on a die, but although one ancient hub for a Roman coin survives, it does not appear that the practice was common."</p><p><br /></p><p>(Emphasis added.)</p><p><br /></p><p>*From Wikipedia: "A burin is a steel cutting tool used in engraving, from the French burin (cold chisel). Its older English name and synonym is graver."</p><p><br /></p><p>See also Jones, supra, entry for "Hub" at pp. 140-141:</p><p><br /></p><p>"A matrix in relief, produced by striking, or perhaps by casting, followed by further working, from which a number of dies could be struck. A process of this kind would save a great deal of time when many dies needed to be made. At present only one hub for a Roman coin is known, for a victoriate, now in Madrid. No surviving coins can be shown to have been struck from it, and it has also been suggested that it is . . . the work of a counterfeiter."</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, [USER=19463]@dougsmit[/USER] had a very interesting comment at <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/question-about-legend-on-reverse-of-galba-denarius.358360/#post-4353271" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/question-about-legend-on-reverse-of-galba-denarius.358360/#post-4353271">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/question-about-legend-on-reverse-of-galba-denarius.358360/#post-4353271</a> about the compass circles used in die preparation, sometimes reflected in the compass dots visible on a lot of flans:</p><p><br /></p><p>"Every die started with a compass circle drawn around a central dot that provided a reference line for the dotted border. Coins that had a detail of some sort in the middle had that dot erased but some that had things right and left as the letters here [a coin of Galba], allowed the dot to remain and show on the coin. Some dies, probably by accident, missed the dot while other of the same design hit it. This is easiest to see on the obverse of Provincials that showed the emperor and his wife face to face . . . ." (See thread for further discussion.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Compass dots are not to be confused with the lathe dimples often found on Provincial coins, which are a feature of the flans, not the dies. See [USER=75937]@Roman Collector[/USER]'s explanation at <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/finally-a-diadumenian.361348/#post-4558201" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/finally-a-diadumenian.361348/#post-4558201">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/finally-a-diadumenian.361348/#post-4558201</a>, and the article at <a href="http://www.classicalcoins.com/flans1.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.classicalcoins.com/flans1.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.classicalcoins.com/flans1.html</a> .[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 7401800, member: 110350"]See Jones, John Melville, [I]A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins[/I] (London, Seaby, 1999) at pp. 194-195 [entry for "Minting"}: "The dies from which the coins were struck were made of bronze or of iron. Only a very few have survived and it is natural to suppose that if a die was still in usable condition when it was decided to cease striking coins with it, it would be deliberately defaced, or destroyed by melting it down, as a protection against misuse and to produce metal for another die. For this reason it may be suspected that those which are known today were stolen from the mints to which they belonged, or are the work of counterfeiters. [B]The engraving of dies was done with a burin*, a punch and a drill. Diamonds were sometimes used by gem engravers in the ancient world and may therefore also have been used to engrave the metal from which dies were made.[/B] In some cases a hub may have been used to make a preliminary impression of a coin type on a die, but although one ancient hub for a Roman coin survives, it does not appear that the practice was common." (Emphasis added.) *From Wikipedia: "A burin is a steel cutting tool used in engraving, from the French burin (cold chisel). Its older English name and synonym is graver." See also Jones, supra, entry for "Hub" at pp. 140-141: "A matrix in relief, produced by striking, or perhaps by casting, followed by further working, from which a number of dies could be struck. A process of this kind would save a great deal of time when many dies needed to be made. At present only one hub for a Roman coin is known, for a victoriate, now in Madrid. No surviving coins can be shown to have been struck from it, and it has also been suggested that it is . . . the work of a counterfeiter." Also, [USER=19463]@dougsmit[/USER] had a very interesting comment at [URL]https://www.cointalk.com/threads/question-about-legend-on-reverse-of-galba-denarius.358360/#post-4353271[/URL] about the compass circles used in die preparation, sometimes reflected in the compass dots visible on a lot of flans: "Every die started with a compass circle drawn around a central dot that provided a reference line for the dotted border. Coins that had a detail of some sort in the middle had that dot erased but some that had things right and left as the letters here [a coin of Galba], allowed the dot to remain and show on the coin. Some dies, probably by accident, missed the dot while other of the same design hit it. This is easiest to see on the obverse of Provincials that showed the emperor and his wife face to face . . . ." (See thread for further discussion.) Compass dots are not to be confused with the lathe dimples often found on Provincial coins, which are a feature of the flans, not the dies. See [USER=75937]@Roman Collector[/USER]'s explanation at [URL]https://www.cointalk.com/threads/finally-a-diadumenian.361348/#post-4558201[/URL], and the article at [URL]http://www.classicalcoins.com/flans1.html[/URL] .[/QUOTE]
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