The Worst Flans of the Ancient World

This one isnt really the worst....but ive always thought it was struck oddly....

Pakoros I ca. 78-120 A.D.
AR Diobol
Indeterminate mint (Persis)
"New Parthian Coin Types" 1989
Type 6 (pl. 42, 8)

 

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here's a coin from the National Archives of Georgia

King George IV of Georgia, struck 1210 A.D.






and another example

 

Those definitely win the thread, @Victor_Clark!

 

Kudos to @hotwheelsearl for this flantastic thread!

 

Hi All,

Horrible flan, but nice portraits for such a late Ptolemaic from Cyrenaica.



- Broucheion

 

Solidness, @medoraman. I was thinking about posting my only 'wire denga,' bought for how it reminds you of the origin of the term, but as fat as this thread has gotten, that's looking more redundant all the time.
...Anyway, your point is well taken. Especially with medievals (can we include Byzantine? think so), it applies equally to flan and strike. ...Just Show Me an 11th-12th-c. Norman denier that Doesn't look like something only a mother could love.
And thanks to @Macromius for reminding me to thank @hotwheelsearl for the thread.

 

I’m very glad so many folks have gotten enjoyment out of this thread! I certainly love seeing coins “only a mother could love!”

 

...Oh, heck. I guess it's a kopek, not a denga; late, anyway; Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584). Right, the obverse has the Tsarist and British martial patron saint, George, slaying the dragon.

 

The whole reason I bought this coin from a dealer in Berlin:



This coin is a hemi litron from ca. 405-395 BCE. Curiously this is a cast piece, and the casting spur was never removed from the coin, making for a very dramatically formed coin which probably did not circulate for long, but may have been saved as a curiousity or perhaps never circulated at all. This piece has a portrait of Arethusa on the obverse and a dolphin and clam shell on the reverse.

Edit to add - cannot get image to show.

 

Fixed...

 

I see no reason to call that a 'cast piece'. As with most coins, the blank was cast and then the design was stamped on it using a hammer and dies. It is unusual in that they did not clip off that extra piece of metal where the mold for the blank overflowed.

My 'Widow's Mite' was a round die used on a square blank. These things were made at a breakneck pace so you find everything.


Trimming off sprues between the blanks was too much extra work. If the cut was near the coin, we would have a rounder flan but when the cut was nearer the neighbor, you got handles. Evidence suggests they were struck while the strip of blanks was still attached and coins separated after striking. Note the one below shows a bit of the neighboring strike on the top sprue. The intention was for there to be a thin channel between coins but this one overflowed a bit so we see a deep central channel and a thinner overflow outside the channel.
Occasionally you get a round one but that would be more luck than skill.

 

Here is one of the antoniniani of Gallienus that I own. This particular specimen has an extremely ragged and uneven flan that made it somewhat difficult to attribute.

Gallienus:
Plated AE Antoninianus
260 - 268 A.D.
Obverse: GALLIENVS AVG, radiate cuirassed bust right.
Reverse: SECVRIT AVG, Securitas standing left, leaning on column.
Rome
RIC 277

Obverse:



Reverse:

 

Pretty much a rectangle.

 

Try BEST flan!

 

While Georgian coins takes the prize for their flans (its really an understatement as their flans are AMAZING!), here are some Byzantine coins that exhibit odd and messed up flans during the Twenty Years' Anarchy:

Byzantine Empire: Tiberius III Apsimar (698-705) Æ Half Follis, Constantinople (Sear 1369; DOC II.13; MIB 76)

Obv: Legend normally illegible or only fragmentary; Tiberius standing facing, wearing crown and military costume, and holding globus cruciger and long cross
Rev: Large K between A/N/N/O and Δ; above, cross(?); beneath, officina letter Δ
Dim: 3.7 g, 27 mm



Byzantine Empire: Tiberius III Apsimar (698-705) Æ Follis, Constantinople (Sear 1367; DOC II.11)

Obv: Emperor standing, wearing military garb, paludamentum, and crown with cross; In right hand, globus cruciger and in left, long cross
Rev: Large M; cross above, to left, A/N/N/O; B below; CON in exergue
Dim: 29 mm, 3.30g

 

A few more wacky coins from the Twenty Years' Anarchy...

Byzantine Empire: Tiberius III Apsimar (698-705) Æ Half Follis, Constantinople (Sear 1369; DOC II.13; MIB 76)

Obv: Legend normally illegible or only fragmentary; Tiberius standing facing, wearing crown and military costume, and holding globus cruciger and long cross
Rev: Large K between A/N/N/O and Δ; above, cross(?); beneath, officina letter Δ

Overstruck on a half follis of Tiberius III (Sear 1368)




Byzantine Empire: Leontius (695-698) Æ Half Follis, Constantinople (Sear 1335; DOC III.9; MIB III.33)

Obv: Crowned facing bust of Leontius, holding globus cruciger; cross to right
Rev: Large K; cross above, A/N/NO and A across fields, Γ below
Dim: 20mm, 2.49g




Byzantine Empire: Justinian II, 1st Reign (685-695) Æ Half Follis, Constantinople (Sear 1262; DOC 21; MIB 47)

Obv: Crowned facing bust of Justinian, holding globus cruciger
Rev: Large K; date across field; Γ below
Dim: 22 mm, 2.6g

 

I just picked up this Victorinus specifically for the absolute disgusting flan shape.
21x17mm, with chunks taken out of it on the sides and a crack that started to form from the strike itself, I think.

They really didn't even try on this one.

 

You got a good bust and a good reverse though.