Nabataea, Aretas IV(?) Æ 'Positive Matrix or Hub' for Die Production

Nabataea, Aretas IV(?) Æ 'Positive Matrix or Hub' for Die Production (Hubbing). Circa 9 BC - AD 40. Two crossed cornucopiae; X between, H-O flanking. Cf. Younis Al-Qatanani, Nabataean Coins, 168 t1 (same arrangement of controls; cf. O. Hoover, The Royal Nabataean Collection of Uri Mizrahi, 155 (same controls, but O-H reversed)); cf. Meshorer, Nabataean 57. For a similar (Roman) 'hub', cf. CNG 63, 1276. 9.12g, diameter 14mm, die face diameter 10mm, length 16mm.



Condition as seen. Of the greatest rarity and numismatic interest.



Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction XXII, 7 October 2021, lot 414 (sold for £6,500 but buyer defaulted).



The present object is proposed to be a positive matrix or 'hub' with design in relief, which is posited to then have been used to create multiple negative dies for faster die (and therefore coin) production, not requiring that each die be hand engraved from scratch. On the general subject of hubbing: J.F. Healy, Mint practice at Mytilene: Evidence for the use of hubs, in: M.M. Archibald and M.P. Cowell (eds.), Metallurgy in Numismatics III (London 1993), pp. 7-19; G.F. Hill, Ancient methods of coining, NC (1922), p. 38; G. Le Rider, Deux tresors de monnaies grecques de la Propontide (Paris 1993), p. 12f.