Ptolemy III drachm — detail

I work in the machining industry, so I love the fact that the flans for these were machined on an ancient lathe. I like bringing this coin into work and showing it to some of the shop guys and telling them this was machined on a lathe in ancient Egypt over 2000 years ago, they're always floored by that. Have to credit Dave Welsh's article on the subject -- http://www.classicalcoins.com/flans1.html