Excerpt from Ancient Greek Coins, Vol. 1: Part I. Introduction; Parts II-IV. Magna Graecia

Since the practice of gem engraving antedated by many centuries the invention of the cognate glyptic art of die-cutting, it is probable that the improvements gradually evolved in implements and technique of the former, were speedily appropriated by workers in the sister branch. But in contrast to the hard, brittle stone which had to be laboriously engraved by the gemexpert, the material upon which the coin-artist exercised his skill was some soft, malleable metal, probably bronze. Its softness is shown by the facility with which dies seem to have been cut, and by the equal facility, unfortunately, with which they were injuriously affected by rough usage or action of the elements. There are many evidences of this peculiar liability to injury; such as, that no example of an ancient Greek coin-die has come down to us; that, in some otherwise well-preserved coins, there is a want of sharpness which can be only the result of a rapid wear of the die that we also frequently find in coins defects due to corrosion or fracture of their dies and that two coins from the same die so rarely appear that the few instances of such occurrence are always deemed worthy of note. Again, the many varieties of a single type from the hand of one artist, as well as certain issues of emergency show that ancient dies must have been produced with an ease and rapidity incomprehensible in our day, when the cutting of one die in the hardened steel may consume months. These old coin-engravers, however, from constant practice in this rapid production of dies doubtless acquired a wonderful facility; degenerating in some cases, it must be confessed, into carelessness and indifference.

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