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Message:: [QUOTE="lehmansterms, post: 3722857, member: 80804"]Flan production changed from time to time and place to place. At this point, it appears the (thin) flans were created by hammering out the billon/bronze into thinnish sheets and snipping approximate size flan blanks out of the sheets with shears. Other issues may show more traditional flan-production. The earliest of the scyphate trachea, in addition to containing more silver in the billon alloy (some are even silvery-looking) are struck on flans which are thicker, more regular and far more substantial. Those tend to look as though their blank flans were cast, probably in 'trees", as coin blanks had more traditionally been created. The blanks seem likely to have been cast "pre-cupped" to some extent and the (convex) obverses are more likely to be clearly legible than on later issues. A common issue often seen on more regular and substantial flans is SBCV 1917-19 and similar issues of Alexius I. Later, they go through a period where it appears that either a round punch may have been used on hammered sheets, or the shearing work was a more skilled procedure resulting in round(er) flans. By the 13th century and the Latin rulers of Constantinople, the trachea become "ultra-crude" and the randomly polygonal, usually very small trachea become the norm.[/QUOTE]