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V17 2014 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 17, Number 20, May 11, 2014, Article 12

HOW LONG IT TAKES TO CUT A DIE

On the subject of time-to-cut-a-die, Ted Buttrey of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge writes:

The Roman Republican denarii struck in 82 BC were issued by three moneyers, Censorinus, Crepusius, and Limetanus. Only the coins of Crepusius have been closely studied, but it appears from the survival of all three moneyers' issues that they struck in about the same quantity over the year. There is good evidence that they struck in sequence rather than simultaneously, i.e. an active term of 18 weeks for each rather than all at once.

The obverse dies of all three moneyers were cut individually by hand, by two engravers, each with his own distinctive style. The Crepusius obverse dies number about 475, i.e. 18 weeks x 7 days not allowing for days off = 126 days, into 475 dies = roughly 4 dies per day = 2 dies per day per engraver.

(If the moneyers struck simultaneously through the year, so that the engravers were cutting dies for all of them at once, the result is the same.)

There are also the reverse dies, which were cut at the same time and which appear to be divisible into two hands. But even if they can, there is no way to discover whether the reverses were cut by the same, or by two additional, engravers.

So at a minimum, two dies a day per engraver, and maybe rather more than that, in the Rome mint of the first century BC.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CUT A DIE? (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n19a15.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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