Is it common to find ancients (I'm talking Lysimachus with diademed head of Alexander III tetradrachms) struck from EXACTLY the same dies or is it a fairly rare occurrence? I purchased one about three years ago and have just stumbled upon another one which is from exactly the same obverse and reverse dies. In fact it was the reverse die that caught my attention and made me take a closer look. Would it be cool to have two identical examples? What do you think? I'm sure thousands of tetradrachms were struck to pay the armies but still.......!!! Don't want to post pictures as one is a current auction and I don't want to fall foul of forum rules.
One of my favorite types! Not too uncommon to find die matches of the type. As you cited, many were struck by some talented die engravers. My example leaves a bit to be desired, but I'm still plenty happy to have one to share:
I have a nice pair of antoniniani from the Divi series, in the name of Severus Alexander, struck with the same obverse die, and with the two types of different reverses (altar and eagle) Q
Die-identical coins turn up quite frequently. The Eauze hoard, found in 1985, published in 1992, provided an exceptional example: buried about 258 AD, it contained 28054 coins, including 1184 die-identical antoniniani of Valerian I, plus 1045 more from the same obv. die but a different rev. die. Obviously these coins must have come more or less straight from the mint!
If it can happen for owl tets, I am sure it can for lysimachos as well...see my identical owls in my post https://www.cointalk.com/threads/two-simblings-athens-tets-united-after-2400-years.356204/