Rare Double Struck Flan, Julio-Claudian Denarius

My favourite ancient mint error. Flip over, double struck Corinth stater. From what I’ve seen, drastic Greek errors are uncommon.
Pegasi 451

 

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Yes, indeed! I'm recording your specimen in my notes, too! Mine is a bit more worn, so yours illustrates even better one of the really remarkable and puzzling things about this particular die-clash:

On the right side of the reverse legend, only one character appears normally in relief ("raised up"), rather than incuse. Why does only the "O" appear normally, while all the other characters are incuse? (We would expect to see an incuse ring.) How can that be?



An amazing coincidence: The obverse "O" in ANTONINVS (just behind/above the laurel wreath ties) lined up perfectly with the obverse "O" in COS III!!

Consequently, when the dies clashed together, instead of the reverse "O" being obliterated like the rest of COS III, it was actually preserved intact. (Possibly even enhanced!)

 

I was wondering about that, in a vague way - the reverse was such a mess, I figured I was just looking at it wrong. Thanks for the clarification!