RIC 006 Domitian Mule

AR Denarius, 3.35g
Rome mint, 81 AD
Obv: IMP CAESAR DOMITIANVS AVG; Head of Domitian, laureate, bearded, r.
Rev: TR P IX IMP XV COS VIII P P; Tripod with fillets; above, ravens, l. and r., and dolphin over wreath
RIC 6 (R3, this coin). BMC -. RSC -. BNC -.
Ex Harlan J Berk BBS 224, 14 September 2023, lot 139. Ex Curtis Clay Collection. Ex CNG, Auction 70, 21 September 2005, lot 910.

A unique mint mule combining a first issue Domitian obverse with a reverse die used for Titus' last issue. This coin may help clear up a long debated mystery concerning the date of Titus' last denarius issue. Curtis Clay explains: 'Titus' gold and silver coinage is regarded as having ended before 1 July 80, over a year before he died, since his latest aurei and denarii all bear the title TR P IX, and his ninth tribunician year ended on 1 July 80. A fourteen-month gap in the precious metal coinage is strange in this era, however, and if we follow Mattingly in postulating that the attested fire in Rome in 80 destroyed the mint, so interrupting its production, it seems a remarkable coincidence that the mint was finally repaired, and ready to resume production using the same "pulvinar" types that it had been striking for Titus early in 80, precisely when Titus died and Domitian assumed the throne in Sept. 81! Judging from Domitian's earliest coinage, one would have thought that the mint must still have been producing pulvinar coins for Titus just before he died, despite the title TR P IX. That this was in fact the case seems to be proven by a mule which emerged in 2005, RIC Domitian 6, pl. 117, showing Domitian's earliest obv. legend as Augustus, IMP CAESAR DOMITIANVS AVG, coupled with a pulvinar reverse type of Titus, TR P IX IMP XV COS VIII P P, Tripod with dolphin, wreath, and ravens above. This mule strongly suggests that pulvinar coins were being struck for Titus just before he died: it's difficult to believe that an old die of before 1 July 80 had somehow survived the supposed fire, and just happened to be available for use by Domitian fourteen months later! But why continued use of the outdated title? In Sept. 81 Titus was TR P XI, not IX!'

This unique specimen is the plate coin in RIC II.1. It is also discussed in RIC's introduction to Titus' coinage: '... a recently discovered mint mule combines a reverse of Titus' last denarius issue with an obverse of the first issue of Domitian's reign in late 81 (Dom no. 6). Mules usually combine dies in parallel or at least in closely contemporaneous use, which might imply here that the Titus TRP IX IMP XV COS VIII dies continued to be used after the assumption of TR P X, and perhaps even into 81. In sum, while the titulature of Titus is of the first half of 80, the sheer scale of the coinage produced for Titus COS VIII and Domitian COS VII, and the fact that following Domitian's accession the mint was very active in the period September to December 81, suggests 80-81.' (p. 185) It must be noted that prior to this coin's discovery in 2005, Titus' last denarius issue had previously been dated by the major references to the first half of 80. Sometimes a coin can change history.

The numismatic and historical importance of the piece, combined with its aesthetic beauty, places it at or near the top of my list of all time favourite coins.