I may have gone too far...

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Silverlock, Sep 28, 2018.

  1. Silverlock

    Silverlock Well-Known Member

    My wife isn’t a collector of anything but dogs, but she politely oohs and aahs when I show her my latest acquisition for one of my collections. The only thing she’s entirely unimpressed by are early Greek factions — I suspect it’s because she needs her reading glasses to see them. Unfortunately, early Greek coins happen to be my coin collecting focus. So when this arrived in the mail today, instead of an ooh or an aah, or even one of those smiles suggesting she’s thinking she should have married one of her other options, all I got were laughs:

    D5BA8300-CFF4-4524-9BEF-95A6473A5896.jpeg

    06E5AD14-FB4C-4760-9891-2D00D67D7B6F.jpeg

    Unstruck silver coin flan for hemitetartemorion
    3 mm
    0.113 grams

    I’ve never seen an unstruck ancient coin flan, so this got my attention. Coming to ancients from US error coins, a blank planchette really got my attention. To give you an idea of how tiny this thing is, here it is next to a Caria, Ionia 5th century bull tetartemorion at 0.145 grams, a Persis 2nd century Mithra hemidrachm at 14 mm and 1.48 grams, and a US penny.

    619BC1B3-0476-45D7-A11C-52B9965B644A.jpeg

    One reason I collect early Greek coins is because I am astounded that they were able to carve a die that minute without the aid of a magnifying glass. It seems impossible, all the more so because many times I can’t even see the design without a magnifying glass. And to think people conducted business with coins this small is astounding. In the days before cheap finely woven linens, accurate scales, and pockets, how did this even work? How did they get the coin to the agora? How wasn’t it lost passing from one hand to another? How did it even make it out of the house? How did it even make it to the house?

    At 3 mm this is my smallest collectible. Please share your smallest coin that could be made from a flan such as this. And if you have an unstruck flan, of any size, I’d really like to see it.
     
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  3. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Size don't make any difference.........hang in there Brother. devil.gif
     
    randygeki, Silverlock and spirityoda like this.
  4. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Shoot (avatar), are all those hers?
     
  5. Vess1

    Vess1 CT SP VIP Supporter

    LMAO! That pic (and story) made me laugh hard. First time I've laughed all day.
    Whatever floats your boat man. That is pretty neat. IDK how you verify it is what it is but I'm sure there's something to it. I've never collected ancients but currently reading 100 Greatest Ancients of all time and really enjoying it.
     
    Theodosius likes this.
  6. Silverlock

    Silverlock Well-Known Member

    Not yet. But if I keep turning up with stuff like this I fear it might be my future.
     
    green18 likes this.
  7. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Heaven Help........that hoard will hollow your hallow........
     
  8. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    Very interesting piece. That is one to be slabbed just to get the documentation on it. And you can never go too far with coins, especially ancients.
     
  9. 7Calbrey

    7Calbrey Well-Known Member

    Think how the Pyramids had been built thousands of years before this tiny coin was struck !
     
  10. Carl Wilmont

    Carl Wilmont Well-Known Member

    Here's a bronze planchet that was a hammer strike away from being a Judean prutah. It dates to the Second Temple Period Hasmonean to Herodian times, 135 - 4 BC. 7.6 X 8.8 mm, 0.42 gm.

    The Judean molds for casting flan strips were prepared by drilling shallow sockets into chalkstone. The "nipple" on one side of the blank is the result of the impression left by the point of the drill bit in the mold.

    Unstruck Bronze Planchet.jpg
     
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2018
  11. randygeki

    randygeki Coin Collector

    Nice.Mines huge compared to yours.
    19816q00.jpg
    Ar 0.249g, 6.7mm
     
  12. Silverlock

    Silverlock Well-Known Member

    Very interesting, thanks for sharing. This is more what I would expect a flan to look like given the age.
     
  13. Pavlos

    Pavlos You pick out the big men. I'll make them brave!

    Sometimes I appreciate small coins more because making a piece of art on a die that small takes a lot of skills.

    My fiancee is also not a collector or has any interest in coins but when I show her my newest additions and it look nice in her eyes she does appreciate them, but somehow the bigger the coin the better in her eyes, maybe I should buy a Ptolemy hockey puck for her. It is also funny when I show her a 20.000 dollar worth coin and I ask her what she thinks about it, she says "Oh that looks really nice, if you want a nice coin then buy that one", and then I ask her (as a joke) "what should I give max for it" and I get as response "60 euro or something", hmm... Maybe I should not tell her what I paid for some other coins I got.
     
  14. ominus1

    ominus1 Well-Known Member

    those very small ones are fascinating really.. i wish i had some... but i do remember getting upset when i'd get a coin that was an ae1 or 2 and think "man, that guy rip me off" :p
     
  15. Clawcoins

    Clawcoins Damaging Coins Daily

    Is that what she said ??
     
  16. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    No......she said 'yikes'...... devil.gif
     
  17. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    Gone too far:
     
    green18 likes this.
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