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| A good part of the appeal of this selection is its most major fault. This extremely popular issue of large silver coins has been studied extensively. In 1929, the dies that produced tetradrachms from 530 to 435 BC were published in DIE MÜNZEN VON SYRAKUS by Erich Boehringer. The book illustrates 733 die combinations allowing coins of the period to be placed in the order of their issue. This was made possible by the practice of the Syracuse mint where obverse and reverse dies were used one at a time and replaced individually when they failed. That means that an obverse die might be used sequentially with two reverse dies before it was replaced by the second obverse which appears with the same second and a different (third) reverse. Some dies lasted longer than others but the common pattern was for obverse dies to last longer than reverses. My example is Boehringer 703 (V345/R481) meaning that it is the 703rd combination using the 345th obverse paired with the 481st reverse. This illustrates that reverse dies failed more frequently than obverses. By the time my coin was struck, reverse 481 had broken badly behind the head but, it seems, that die 482 was not yet finished and ready to replace it so the striking crew was trying to make the old, broken die last just a bit longer. Some stress might be reduced if they angled the die a bit causing a weak strike on the damaged side. My coin has rather little wear as can be seen on the right side of the reverse but there is no detail on the upper left since the (intentionally, I believe) flat strike produced a weak image from the damaged part. While the obverse die was in good shape, the coin is equally flat and detailess on the lower right part that backed up the broken die region. Soon after this pathetic looking coin was made, reverse 482 was put to work and 481 was discarded. Combination 704 continued to use obverse 345 with the new 482 reverse. A coin from this pairing and a less damaged (earlier) strike from combination 703 can be seen online.
My coin is not terribly good looking because of the die problem and the uneven strike but this same feature makes it interesting enough to make my favorites. I consider the weak strike to add interest. I wonder how many coins were struck after mine before the die failed completely or the new die was rushed into service. I will not own many of these usually expensive coins but a collector with deep pockets might decide to try to assemble the entire 733 coin series. Certainly it would take a very long lifetime. I'll show here a second tetradrachm that most people would prefer over the damaged die example above. This one is from about fifty years earlier (485-478 BC) and is of considerably different style. As of this time, I have not been able to assign it a Boehringer number (I do not own the book). |
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