Wisecentaur
Oct 13, 2007, 03:34 PM
Hello All,
I have worked on a presentation for our local coin club entitled “The Origin of Coins and Ancient Minting Methods" for the past two months. One of the topics, Ancient use of hubs in die preparation, surfaced. I am quite interested to continue research on published information on this topic and would like to know other members comments and beliefs.
The information I have read to date have indicated that hubbing would have been the most logical method to produce dies for the Southern Italy Incuse dies of Metapontum, Kroton, Sybaris, etc. The logic followed that the relief die was cut in rough form then hubbed into the opposite die. The celator would then add detail, rim design, and other devices with a graver.
No where did I read that the ancients used hubbing like a modern mint where all the detail was transferred during the process. Other opinions were that this would have been such a logical process that it would be inconceivable that the ancients didn't know about it. One author provided an example where he stated that the obverse die (anvil) was produced to allow the striking of two or more coins per strike. There was a photo of a coin with an erroneous duplicate device that the author stated proved hubs were used to produce the die.
I would be quite interested if anyone has information or knowledge about this topic.
My talk included a sixty frame PowerPoint presentation and took over an hour. It was well received by both our regular coin club and the ancients club.
Thanks for any comments.
Dave
I have worked on a presentation for our local coin club entitled “The Origin of Coins and Ancient Minting Methods" for the past two months. One of the topics, Ancient use of hubs in die preparation, surfaced. I am quite interested to continue research on published information on this topic and would like to know other members comments and beliefs.
The information I have read to date have indicated that hubbing would have been the most logical method to produce dies for the Southern Italy Incuse dies of Metapontum, Kroton, Sybaris, etc. The logic followed that the relief die was cut in rough form then hubbed into the opposite die. The celator would then add detail, rim design, and other devices with a graver.
No where did I read that the ancients used hubbing like a modern mint where all the detail was transferred during the process. Other opinions were that this would have been such a logical process that it would be inconceivable that the ancients didn't know about it. One author provided an example where he stated that the obverse die (anvil) was produced to allow the striking of two or more coins per strike. There was a photo of a coin with an erroneous duplicate device that the author stated proved hubs were used to produce the die.
I would be quite interested if anyone has information or knowledge about this topic.
My talk included a sixty frame PowerPoint presentation and took over an hour. It was well received by both our regular coin club and the ancients club.
Thanks for any comments.
Dave