Two Coins, One Celator?

Just my impression, while there are some similarities with the lips and chin and hair. The eyes, nose and face are different. IMO they are not from the same person.

Unfortunately not provable, nevertheless a good probability.
Post all theories to: "Style Alone". You should get a reply here in the CCF.

I am never clear on how to separate the work one cutter on two different days from that of two cutters who were trained by the same master working side by side in the mint. In the case of die match finding other than the 'luck' method: You are right selecting a distinctive die since it makes screening candidates easier. Next just look at a few thousand coins and the matches will come. You are much more likely to find matches in rare issues since they tended to have been made by fewer dies.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/do...dielink.html

Agreed--there is no way to prove the same artist was involved, outside of a signature. I have seen maybe a hundred Marcus Aurelius denarii from Rome--and have not yet found that elusive die match. Still, looking at the overall form versus minute, possibly random differences--the shape of the profiles, details of the nose and beard, the "startled" look of the eye, and the rendering of the hair may suggest as Doug observed--the influence of one master engraver mentoring his underlings. Stylistic clues are one way art historians group work into specific schools/workshops or even identify an artist who didn't sign his work--a common situation in ancient art.

Here is a good example of such stylistic influence, or perhaps even the work of one trained hand using an engraving tool. Take a look at how each engraver represents the hair as one larger circle topped by a half-moon. That certainly points to a shared technique, or perhaps just one artist's hand.

It's just fun to wonder about these things. It could also be that dies were "touched up" by different artists, and it's quite possible that obverse/reverse dies were done by different hands.

And I also see the strong similarities on your two coins--especially on the facial and helmet details--it's actually closer than the two coins I pictured.