A nice pair of
sestertii!
RIC 306: the specimen described and illustrated by
RIC is in Copenhagen. What made this coin unique, however, was only the
obverse legend variety,
writing DOMITIAN rather than DOMITIANVS. The
rev. type is much more interesting than that minor
obverse legend variety! The
type of
Victory holding a
cornucopia occurs only on
sestertii of
Titus and of
Domitian as
Caesar in 80-81 AD, nowhere else in the Roman coinage. There may be only two such
reverse dies, yours with
legend VICTORIA AVG, known for
Titus (
RIC 179-80,
obv. head r. or l.) and
Domitian (
RIC 305-6, DOMITIANVS or
DOMITIAN in
obv. legend). The second variety has
legend VICTORIA AVGVST, so far known only for
Titus (
RIC 182). According to
RIC 181, there is a third variety with
legend VICTORIA AVG,
Victory holding a
cornucopia but not leaning on a
column, attested by coins in
Berlin and
Vienna. But are these coins correctly reported? Might they not be from the same known
VICTORIA AVG die, but with the
column worn away or overlooked? I can't fully believe in the existence of this third variety until I actually see such a coin; a shame
RIC didn't illustrate this variety!
RIC 301: Your specimen is important for confirming that
Victory indeed holds her expected
wreath in her r. hand. The specimen
RIC illustrates, from the BM photofile, seems to show a
wreath, but it is somewhat
tooled. The NAC coin that you mention, however, NAC 33, 2006, lot 464, seems to show
Victory holding a flower rather than a
wreath. A syncretic deity combining
Victory and
Spes, NAC comments, and this interpretation was accepted in RIC's footnote on the coin, p. 216, note 47. However, your coin, clearly not
tooled, is from the same dies as the other two, and shows
Victory holding her normal
wreath! It must be just a slight doublestrike, also visible in the S of S C, which has deformed the
wreath on the NAC coin, and made the remains look like a flower. Here is that NAC coin, followed by Alberto's:
