Quite, Rangnath. I was wondering about the deep letters also. In theory, they could have been struck more than once. Imagine the scene, a large wooden block with the die mounted on it. Two hulks on either side with a big hammer and in the middle an agile person holding the upper die, feeding and removing blanks. Swish, there's a blank, thud, the upper die is in place, WHAM WHAM, another coin produced, swiped on a pile with a quick move of the hand. The problem with this scenario is that you'd expect that on some coins, the upper die or the blank would have moved slightly after the first blow, resulting in a double struck coin. In fact, this happens often enough with a single blow. I am not aware of such coins from this area.
I think that instead, the blanks were heated. Here's the alternative scenario: Same block with lower die, but only one hulk and two agiles. The first agile (works standing) picks up a heated die with a tong and places it on the lower die. The second agile (works sitting, hence two agiles) covers it with the upper die and the brute produces a coin. The second sweeps the hot coin in a bucket of water, protecting his hand e.g. with a piece of leather. Since the heat would soften the metal, there would be less double strikes and more relief. Neat theory, but I can't prove it.
Peter
