Very rare Vespasian early As

[FlaviusDomitianus]

Hello everyone.

All early middle bronzes of Vespasian are rare and this is no exception.

Its peculiarities are two:
- the unusual bust, with drapery on the shoulder
- the Felicitas reverse struck on an As, while later it was used for a long time on dupondii.

A pleasant coin, despite the wear.

Alberto


https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-155723

[orfew]

A lovely coin Alberto. I especially like the portrait.

[curtislclay]

From the same dies as the Oxford spec. illustrated in RIC, pl. 20, 133.

[FlaviusDomitianus]

A lovely coin Alberto. I especially like the portrait.

Thanks Andrew for the kind compliment.

Alberto

[FlaviusDomitianus]

From the same dies as the Oxford spec. illustrated in RIC, pl. 20, 133.

Thanks Curtis for your additional note.

The metal looks brassy in hand; I'm wondering wether the coin is actually an As or rather a Dupondius.

Alberto

[curtislclay]

Nero introduced the radiate crown on bronze coins of the living emperor, and a little later began to use it as a denomination mark on his dupondii.

But the radiate crown was still a divine attribute, so Galba and Vitellius omitted it from their dupondii. Vespasian too at first omitted it, but then brought it back to mark his dupondii, apparently from early in 71 on.

So your coin could be a dupondius dating from early in 71, before the re-introduction of the radiate crown on that denomination.

To confirm the color of its metal, I would recommend placing your coin side by side with both an unpatinated red As and an unpatinated yellow dupondius or sestertius. I have found it easy to make mistakes when trying to judge metal color from just a single coin, without comparison to other coins whose metallic composition is certain!

RIC makes several attempts to separate asses from dupondii among Vespasian's early middle bronzes, but without making it entirely clear what the correct order and chronology of the various issues was, and when the radiate crown was re-introduced. In any case the latest dupondii of 70 AD were apparently still laureate: RIC 36-38.

A third peculiarity of your coin: VESPASIANVS not just VESPASIAN in the obv. legend.

[FlaviusDomitianus]

Thanks Curtis for your excursus.

I compared the coin with other unpatinated Asses and Dupondii in my collection, and I'm still convinced about the metal being orichalcum.

The coin is even thicker than it is normally an As.

I forwarded a picture to Ian Carradice, raising my doubts about the actual denomination of the coin.

Alberto