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Author Topic: Roman Empire "Trachy" Type Coin?  (Read 488 times)

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Offline VOTman

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Roman Empire "Trachy" Type Coin?
« on: July 19, 2021, 03:16:11 pm »
Please help me with this odd curved coin received in an auction lot.

It's a Claudius AE Antoninianus, 21mm diameter, 3.4g in weight..., and it's somewhat cup-shaped.  The flan is 1.3mm thick but the curved coin is 3.0mm thick.  I know the Romans didn't produce Trachy type coins.  So the obvious question is..., what happened to this curved Roman Empire coin?

Any ideas?

Offline quadrans

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Re: Roman Empire "Trachy" Type Coin?
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2021, 03:22:40 pm »
This cup-shape type is completely artificial not the original production shape, made afterwards manipulated, perhaps for some purpose ...

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Offline SC

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Re: Roman Empire "Trachy" Type Coin?
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2021, 04:47:17 pm »
Fire!  :evil:

I have a couple like this and in addition to the curvature they clearly shows signs of fire damage.

Both are large antoninani like this too.

SC


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Offline Ron C2

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Re: Roman Empire "Trachy" Type Coin?
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2021, 05:42:59 pm »
Roman coins of this vintage are routinely dug up in hoards. In many cases, they were 8n building that burned, or are dug out of fields that were farmed.

It's not that uncommon to see coins warped by fire, or disfigured by being hit by a plow some time over the centuries.

Someone mentioned heat distortion by fire, and I think that is a good guess as to this coin's past.
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Offline quadrans

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Re: Roman Empire "Trachy" Type Coin?
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2021, 06:31:33 am »
Fire!  :evil:

I have a couple like this and in addition to the curvature they clearly shows signs of fire damage.

Both are large antoninani like this too.

SC

The effect of heat is an interesting idea, but I can hardly imagine without mechanical effect of thermal expansion so it does not work in physics, except that if the heat only reaches the middle, but the metals are good thermal conductors and immediately equalize the temperature ...
In any case, it is interesting.
I think it could have been some mechanical effect that was even intentional.

Regards

 Joe
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