The Damaskos Mint of Alexander the Great.

After a brief commissioning period involving the contemporaneous serial striking of coins in each of two series, the newly established Macedonian Imperial mint at Damaskos then produced the bulk of its coinage in a complexly interwoven manner, with a tight interlinking of obverse dies. This was the result of a shared inventory of obverse dies used by up to six striking teams. Inconspicuous patterns of one to six small dots, used as secondary mint controls, may have served to identify the coins struck on each anvil. This would have facilitated the mint’s internal control processes, involving the daily accounting for and reconciliation of silver input to each anvil, with the coinage output from each, in a production operation consisting of a large number of striking teams/anvils within a single secure facility. The coinage has the characteristics of a high volume, short duration mintage commencing around 326/5 BC with an estimated duration of about one year. The total coined volume from the mint is estimated to have been 1.22 million tetradrachms, equivalent to c. 807 Attic talents of silver, struck from an estimated 61 obverse dies.