Question concerning Cast then Struck Flans

[Mayadigger]

Ave!

The Black Sea colony city of Panticapaeum, circa 200-150 BC, produced a plethera of crude coinage that were cast in mass, broken apart, then struck. 

A number of years ago I brought up this same subject here on Forum and one of our members posted pix of how such coins were cast. Sadly I cannot remember who it was and have to admit that I failed to save the pix to my files.

Can anyone help me out here? See the photo below.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Robert_Brenchley]

The planchets were cast in single-sided stone moulds; I don't have the URL for any pics but if you've got Meshorer's 'Treasury of Jewish Coins' it's got pics of a couple of examples which have been found.

[PtolemAE]

Hi Kevin -

There's a link on the www.ptolemybronze.com main page:

"Learn about how Ptolemaic bronzes were manufactured"

that will take you here:

http://www.classicalcoins.com/flans1.html

that has some info on coin casting and flan-preparation technology and some diagrams.

Hope that's what you're looking for.

BTW, lots of ancient bronzes show evidence of having been cut away from the casting sprues (the connections between the disc pits) with squared off remnants of the sprues or flat spots on the edges where the sprues were cut a little too closely.  Almost all Ptolemaic bronzes seem to have started life this same way.  The coins in your picture may show that the sprues weren't even cut away, rather just cut between the disc pits, leaving 'ears' on the discs.  That might have been useful for holding these small discs during striking, too.

PtolemAE

[Mayadigger]

Ave!

Thanks guys. 

The images are just what I was hoping for:

I think the 'A' catagory suits these coins perfectly.

[PtolemAE]

Ave!

Thanks guys. 

The images are just what I was hoping for:

I think the 'A' catagory suits these coins perfectly.

Looks right to me, too.  The diametrically opposing 'ears' give the sprue structure away quite convincingly.

PtolemAE