Dear Ken P & Board,
Don't worry! The
die axis of a particular ancient coin issue can be strictly controlled, very wonky, or somewhere in between. It really depends on who is minting the coin. A few
Roman provincial examples:
https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/3904https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/1332https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/9/417Note that nearly all the recorded specimens of the last issue were struck from a single pair of dies!
I was just thinking now about the 12h/6h situations where some control was obviously being exercised. In some cases I can see a 180 degree shift in die orientation happening when either the hammer or anvil die is being replaced
or when one worker wants to take a break and
hands the hammer die over to a colleague
across from him. Think about this closely. If it was just the die he was handing over, a change in
die axis may or may not happen. But if it was being held by a pair of tongs or some other kind of stabilizing instrument, then the die shift would have to be
180 degrees if Minter #2 was trying to be a mirror of Minter #1. Interesting.
Anyway, I
hope this helps a little.
Best regards,
Mark Fox
Michigan