Four cities, one obverse die

[Pscipio]

In https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=25309.100 I presented an obverse die match between two cities:

Hadrianotherai, Mysia, AE20.
Obv: IEPOC ΔHMOC, laureate bust of demos right.
Rev: AΔPIANOΘERITΩN, Asklepios standing, head turned left, leaning on serpent-entwinded staff.
Ø 20 mm, 2.67 g.

Germe, Lydia, AE20.
Obv: IEPOC ΔHMOC, laureate bust of demos right.
Rev: ΓERMHNΩN, Herakles, naked, standing front, head left, holding lion-skin over left arm and club right.
Ø 20 mm, 3.15 g
BMC 5

[Pscipio]

Now I have found a matching coin from the third city of the four that used that die:

Attaos, Mysia, AE19.
Obv: IEPOC ΔHMOC, laureate bust of demos right.
Rev: ATTAITΩN (retrograde), Asklepios stands facing, head left, holds staff encircled with a serpent.
Ø 19 mm, 3.21 g
SNG France 134 var. (reverse legend normal)

So now I am on the look for the last one, Hadrianeia. Having all four would be nice!

Lars

[Pscipio]

Heureka! I caught the missing city, Hadrianeia:

Hadrianeia, Mysia, AE18.
Obv: IEPOC ΔHMOC, laureate head of Demos right.
Rev: AΔPIANEΩN, Tyche with kalathos standing front, holding cornucopiae and rudder.
18 mm, 2.57 g
SNG Aul. 1131

[Pscipio]

I didn't expect to find all four cities so fast! Here's a compilation of all four coins.

Lars

[Jochen]

What a nice series! And the old question: How these cities have shared the die? Was there a sole mint which struck coins for all these cities? I know we have already discussed this question but I have forgotten it! I have never found matching coins from different cities.

Best regard

[Pscipio]

Personally, I prefer the theory that there was a central mint that struck coins for the other cities as well. Sending a die around to four cities would cost too much time and money.

Lars

[Tiathena]

 
   Absolutely fantastic! ..&nd fascinating to be sure…
 
    Congratulations Lars!
  I can but imagine your feeling of happiness and success!
 
   Very best, as ever –
    Tia
 

[awl]

Is it possible that they made the dies at one place and shipped them out to the different mints?

[slokind]

But these are all the same die.  It's not like the Italians making multiples of 100-lire dies and shipping them out.  Even if these dies didn't pose as many security problems as with dies for silver and gold, it makes no sense to keep a set-up and crew of skilled workmen at several places when it's easier to deliver sacks of coins every so often.  Switzerland doesn't send (or didn't before electronic delivery!) stereotypes to print postage stamps all over the world; no, she had her own presses and shipped the sheets of finished stamps, so that (as every kid who collected stamps half a century ago knew) the smallest economies had the most perfect stamps.  It is not true that several places never used the same obverse dies; in the 190s AD in the Danubian region there are several dies that more than one city used.  Except for small change, though, it probably wasn't something you boasted about; it would be like a town that hadn't a bank of its own.
Pat L.

[Mark Farrell]

Lars,

That is a sweet set. Congratulations!

I am working on a four-town set myself, from Syria, and have yet to find the first one!

Butcher in "Coinage in Roman Syria" had a lot to say about shared obverse dies in that region and made a very convincing argument that it was a central mint (in the case of Syria, presumably Antioch) that produced all of the coins. He even found shared obverse dies between Antioch and Alexandria, which is is still not resolved.

Very nice work, Lars, and congrats on closing the loop.

Mark

[Pscipio]

A second from Attaia, same obverse die and also an Asklepios reverse. So why buying it? Because unlike the first one, which has a retrograde legend, this one has the correct version. Also, the condition is quite a bit better.

Attaos, Mysia, AE19.
Obv: IEPOC ΔHMOC, laureate bust of demos right.
Rev: ATTAITΩN, Asklepios stands facing, head left, holds staff encircled with a serpent.
17 mm, 3.26 g
SNG France 134

Lars

PS: second pic is clickable