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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 4291571, member: 110350&quot;]I was thinking about how tiny those banker&#039;s marks/test cuts actually are.&nbsp; In the case of the ones next to Medusa&#039;s mouth on the Plautius Plancus denarius, probably no more than 1 or 1.5 mm. across, given that the entire coin is only 18 mm. in diameter. Imagine how incredibly fine the instrument tips must have been to incise or punch those marks, especially if the marks had any kind of designed shape.&nbsp; It seems inconceivable to me that people were able to do that (or that die cutters were able to cut parts of the original coin designs) without the aid of some sort of artificial magnification. Since the magnifying glass itself supposedly wasn&#039;t invented until the European Middle Ages, by Roger Bacon, what did people use?&nbsp; Crystals?&nbsp; I also vaguely recall reading about containers filled with water being used for magnification in the ancient world.&nbsp; There must have been something.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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