How did Nestorian artisans use Greek and Roman coin designs in the 12th and 13th centuries?

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Ancient Roman coin — coin collecting Obverse of a silver denarius showing the mythical hero Aeneas.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Nestorian artisans serving the princes of the Jazira region (modern-day Iraq, Syria, and Turkey) created a sophisticated series of coins that drew heavily upon ancient Greek and Roman designs.1

These artisans utilized their access to well-studied collections to incorporate these historical motifs in two primary ways:

Faithful Reproduction: Some coins were designed with such precision that they accurately rendered the details of the original specimens, including the faithful repetition of the original inscriptions.1
Modified Adaptation: Other designs were altered to suit local cultural or religious contexts. For instance, when copying a Byzantine coin of Romanus III, artisans removed the cross from the emperor’s orb to align with Muslim sensibilities.1

The variety and technical sophistication of these coins serve as evidence that these artisans possessed and studied formal collections of ancient currency to serve as prototypes for their work.1