Hello everyone.
As a collector, one of the things that gratify me most is to spot
rarities that others do not recognize.
Therefore I was very excited this morning when the postman handed me the envelope containing this
denarius of
Domitian Caesar with
Pegasus on the
reverse.
The coin was advertised as
mint of
Rome, but I
had immediately noticed the differences in the
style of
portrait and lettering, not to mention the small "o" at the base of the neck, which could barely seen in the photo, but that is clearly readable in hand.
Moreover, the
portrait of
Domitian in the
Roman version is unmistakable, with nose and chin particularly accentuated in most cases, as you can see from the close comparison.
This coin belongs to an Eastern
Mint, possibly
Ephesus, and is apparently of the same dies as the
RIC's plate specimen.
The editors of
RIC emphasize how the subject is taken from the coinage of
Augustus. In the
mint of
Rome this subject was exclusively minted for
Domitian, being probably
his commoner coin struck under
Vespasian.
As the winged
horse was considered a
patron of the arts, David Corson the author of the novel "
Domitia and
Domitian" assumes that the subject was chosen by the future empress, because at that time
Domitian was very passionate about literary composition .
I've added to my
gallery also two examples of the
Roman type (
RIC 921,
Vespasian) from different dies.
Kind regards
Alberto
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-97871https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-97869https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-97870