Crawford 364/1, Q. Antonius Balbus, Denar (with Stannard gouge)

Al-marco weight adjustment gouge on a sharp Republican Balbus Denarius. Generally referenced in the works of Clive Stannard.

Still 4,11 gramm.

"Ancient mints sometimes adjusted weights by gouging a sliver, occasionally slivers, of metal from the face of a flan, before striking the coin. If it's done al marco. it means means they not paying too much attention to the weights of individual coins, but ensuring that a fixed number of flans were made from a fixed weight of metal. In al marco adjustment, a block of flans is cast a little heavy. The right number of flans for the desired weight of coins is counted out (and the overall weight will, of course be, too heavy). Flans that look heavy are successively picked out one by one, without too much attention to the weight, and a sliver of metal is gouged off. The gouged flans are tossed back into the block, until the overall weight is reduced to the correct overall weight".