When I asked Basemetal whether he would be willing to sell this
denarius, he generously offered to donate it to me instead, in the expectation that it will eventually pass with the rest of my
collection to the BM or the Ashmolean Museum!
With the coin in hand, I can confirm my previous
attribution.
Obv: IMP (lower 1/3 only surviving, not 100% certain, under the
bust) [
CAESAR]
VESPASIA[NVS
AVG],
head laureate r.
Rev: SECVRI[TAS - P R], possibly with traces of the P just before 3 o'clock, but uncertain. The
type is clearly the same as on the
Paris aureus:
Securitas rests her r.
arm on top of her
head, her l. elbow is on an armrest, and under her l.
arm she doubtless holds a slanting
scepter as on the
aureus, none of which is however visible on the
denarius. She could be naked above the waist, as
Securitas sometimes is; perhaps this detail could be decided from the
Paris coin in hand. The actual
rev. dies are very similar, but I think slightly different: the C of SECVRITAS seems slightly lower in relationship to the goddess' r. knee on the
denarius than on the
aureus.
3.06 g.,
axis 6h.
This may be the first occurrence of this
type in silver, and it is important for the
mint attribution of the
type: the
obv. die of the
denarius is very similar to those of Mattingly's "Illyrian
mint", as I mentioned above. The
aureus obv. die fits there too, but is less characterisic; certainly its
attribution to
Rome in the
Paris catalogue is wrong.
I will notify
Ian Carradice of this
thread; perhaps he can
still cite this coin in the new
RIC if it is unique, or maybe he will be able to name other specimens of this
denarius already known to him.