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Traces of working on cast flans for bronze coins were observed at first on Ptolemaic issues of the 3rd – 1st century BC. The traces consist of a centering mark and concentric grooves.
During the late 2nd and the 1st century BC irregular straight grooves appeared on the copper alloy coins of the Pontic Kingdom. Based on experiments made by the authors and other characteristics they were hand-saw traces. Mithridates VI had a coin manufacturing system organised in great detail including different materials. The technologies spread with his military expeditions in Asia Minor. Using this information, quite precise minting dates can be determined for coins issued outside of the Pontic Kingdom.
After the 2nd century AD very regular parallel straight grooves appear on the Roman Provincial coinage of Asia Minor. They indicate that the flans were cut from cast metal rods, using a machine-saw.
