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Ancient die engravers found a novel way to depict two people on a coin.Among the most intriguing of all ancient coins are those bearing more than one portrait. They come in all metals and types and feature a good mix of gods and mortals. Sometimes these portraits "confront" each other and other times they're shown in a form known as "jugate," in which one portrait overlaps another.

We'll start with the coin above, a bronze pentassarion struck A.D. 217 to 218 at Marcianopolis, which shows confronted busts of the emperor Macrinus and his son, the Caesar Diadumenian. On coins with confronted busts, the person of greatest honor appears on the left.
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