Frans,
Your coin is
Strack 1015,
Berlin only, pl. XIII, same
rev. die as yours.
The remarkable features of the
rev. are (a) VO - TA across
field, rather than in
exergue, and (b)
candelabrum altar not tripod
altar.
The sacrificing figure is usually called the emperor, but
Strack points out unveiled, bearded figures on some examples, which he thinks must be the
Genius of the Senate, and he suggests that the unveiled figure on this As might be
Marcus Caesar.
The
Berlin specimen is EF, but unfortunately weak precisely on the date.
Strack reads TR P XI, and I think that's what we must restore for your coin too.
No TR P X coins of Pius are known. Apparently it was not until
his tribunician day, 25 Feb. 148, that TR P XI was added to
his numismatic titulature.
Marcus had been TR P since 1
Dec. 147 after the birth of
his daughter, and now three months later he was becoming TR P II. That increase in Marcus' number was the occasion of adding TR P XI for Pius, to achieve balance in the titles of the two rulers.
On
denarii, the
VOTA type seems to have been introduced rather late in TR P XI, and was then continued for a longer period in TR P
XII. So it's very unlikely that the
type was introduced earlier on the bronzes, with your hypothetical TR P X !
As to Benito's
denarius, that
Vesta standing
type was struck only for Antoninus as TR P XV-XVII. The date on this
denarius is incomplete: it must originally have been XV,
XVI, or XVII.
