When I first dwelled into ancients I really wondered how engravers made such great dies and I wanted to do something similar and mint my own coins, unfortunately, I don't have the tools including a furnace so I settled for wax and clay. Hopefully one day I'll make dies, melt blanks, and strike some coins! Anyhow, I've made this terracotta coin a while ago inspired by ancient Rome that I've always wanted to post in this forum! The obverse shows my initial J (I know Latin doesn't have J, but oh well) a bird (specifically an eagle), an Elephant (cuz I like them), and 2020 in Roman numerals. Reverse has a winged boy riding an emu (inspired from the coins of Tarentum), the letters AVST denoting Australia and the Southern Cross constellation. 12 grams, 30mm These are my dies.
This is the 2nd or 3rd post of members making their own coins/intaglios and I'm still impressed! Great job!
When you have an itch but you're already over the budget, activities like these can really stop you from spending more
Nice job, Jay! After struggling to engrave metal dies I thought I'd try designing fantasy ancient coins in a CAD program, then have metal dies made from them. Over the last few years I've sporadically researched various programs and had picked one out that would be best for this type of work. I put the whole thing on hold and when I went back to review the software, naturally that company is no longer around . I'm sure there's a terribly steep learning curve for the software plus there's the additional complication of finding one that works on a Mac. I never could decide whether to buy a PC for this purpose (expensive!! needs high-end innards). Too many decisions .
This must be fun, great job. What metals did you use to make your coins? and also did you carve your wax or did you have a stamp to go by? I wonder if a 3d printer would help to make a die?