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 Replies: 11 / Views: 1,592 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
842 Posts |
Poll Question
I want to know how you all measure the diameter of your Roman coins. As you know, the flan is seldom perfectly round, so this raises a few questions. There is no set way in measuring the coins, so I want to know how you measure them, or how you think they should be measured.
Edited by ancientcoinguy
02/04/2012 8:39 pm
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
I've always measured at the widest part.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2596 Posts |
I always measure at the widest unless there is a big difference and its very oval shaped.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1045 Posts |
I always measure at the widest AND thinnest points and put BOTH measurements in my attributions. Obsessive compulsive, uh huh!  |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
Average is probably the best. The guys who coined them would not have measured them, and would have only gauged their diameter (size) by perception, with the coin seen as nominally round.
Thinking back over decades, I have never measured an ancient coin for diameter, so maybe it has never been a significant issue. Weight is much more often taken into account.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Quote:
I always measure at the widest AND thinnest points and put BOTH measurements in my attributions. Dang, I missed that. Quote:
Obsessive compulsive, uh huh! Me too I guess  Edited by bobbyhelmet
02/04/2012 9:55 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
Widest for me, when I have a need to measure them, though I don't record the measurements.
Edited by VisigothKing
02/05/2012 02:28 am
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Moderator
Australia
16872 Posts |
I'll typically record both widest and narrowest dimension. But my coin database program just has one field for "diameter"; for significantly non-round coins, I put the average there.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2100 Posts |
I measure and record both but this is not the norm. In my experience dealers and most/all numismatists measure the widest.
Martin
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2044 Posts |
I saw a seller that gave both widest and narrowest measurements. 18 x 16, for example.
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Valued Member
United States
422 Posts |
Widest. Seem to be the way most people have done it. But doing it both makes sense.
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Replies: 11 / Views: 1,592 |
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Posted 02/04/2012 8:45 pm
