I'm back in the saddle again: Vespasian Iovis Cvstos denarius

After a nearly 3 month hiatus due to work related matters that soaked every ounce of free time I had, I'm back. I missed you guys. As some of you may remember, I am trying to assemble a decent collection of Flavian and Good Emperors silver coinage as these are my favorite periods of Roman history, and thanks to JA tonight I took one step closer to that goal:

Ladies and gentlemen, without further adieu, my new denarius of the Emperor who loved money so much that he taxed his citizens' bodily functions, and left the world with one of the best quotes in history: "Pecunia non olet" (Money does not smell)...the mighty conqueror of Judea, Emperor Vespasian.

This is a scarce variety for him. The reverse features Jupiter as a watchman, holding a scepter, standing next to a flaming altar, with the inscription IOVIS CVSTOS.

What do you think? Not a bad way to get bak into the game, right?

 

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Welcome back! That is a nice portrait and an interesting reverse type.

 

Welcome back, that's a lovely coin!

 

Welcome back! That is a very nice coin and in much better shape than mine.

 

Mine has more wear on the obverse but I believe I recall someone here had one with a better strike on the face of Jupiter. Facing faces always wear poorly compared to profiles.

 

How about a DUPONDIUS...


Vespasian, AD 69-79
Æ Dupondius, 12.2g, 27mm, 6h; Rome mint, AD 73.
Obv.: IMP CAES VESP AVG PM TP COS IIII CENS; Radiate head left.
Rev.: Felicitas standing left, holding caduceus and cornucopia, S - C
Reference: RIC II 539(b), p. 78

 

The portrait sold the coin. Good portraits of Vespasian are not easy to find. He looks like a grumpy old man in most of them, and a lot are worse for wear. I hear that has to do a lot with the silver content of Flavian coins being higher, thus making the metal softer and wear more prevalent.

 

You've been missed Sallent and that's a lovely coin to welcome you back. Gotta love the Flavians, eh?

 

I liked it when JA had it, its a great coin. Congrats and welcome back.

 

The Rome mint surprisingly turned out some decent portraits of the old man on occasion. Although, IMHO, the consistently best portraits are to be found from Ephesus.

Regarding the silver content, the percentage of the silver bullion found in Vespasian's denarii is near 80%, the same as those previously struck under Vitellius at Rome but much lower than the issues struck for Augusutus through the reforms of Nero. The denarius remained at that low level until the reforms of Domitian in 82 when it was raised to around 99%, later reduced in 85 to 90%. Vespasian's silver fineness is actually quite low compared to the silver issues struck for other emperors of the first century!

Your coin is a lovely example of the Jupiter type with a strong, bold portrait.

Welcome back, it's nice to see another Flavian enthusiast here!

 

Welcome back, great coin! I am in 90+ hrs a week work mode now....BUT......I have auctions/coins on my mind 24/7. Yesterday, while cutting a clients lawn, I thought ahead to Jesus Vico Auction, where I got some bids to finalize. This great hobby we all enjoy, even makes work fun. Afterall work=$=new gems to add to our collections. Well, off to work

 

Heck @Sallent I figured you burnt yourself out with all your purchases

 

Thank you to @vespasian70 for the clarification on the fineness - I really do learn something new on this forum every day.

I found the OP coin at the last Baltimore show, and it attracted for all the obvious reasons: the mighty bust, good strike, clean surfaces, etc. It became more interesting to me, however, after I researched it a bit.

As far as I can tell, this "Jove the Watchman" type is unique to Vespasian and Titus (the ones of Titus are quite rare). There are IVPPITER CVSTOS denarii and aureii of Nero, in which the god is seated, holding scepter and thunderbolt. But that seems to be it for the Watchman types.

It's also interesting that Jove is found in the nominative IOVIS on these coins, which also apparently occurs nowhere else.

 

Nice one!

 

You're quite welcome John. Butcher and Ponting's 'The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage' will be of great interest to you!

This Jupiter type indeed did not have a precedent, which is unusual for Rome at this time considering all the antique reverse types that were being recycled. If you're wanting a super rare Titus Caesar version of this type, seek out examples with "VESPASIAN" (RIC V863) in the obverse legend rather than the more common "VESPASIANVS" (RIC V874). I wouldn't have my specimen of that rarity without the help of Harry Sneh!

 

I thought you headed back to Cuba. Seriously. You disappeared about the same time the US renewed relations. Figured you were following the money.

 

Glad yer' back Sallent! Not quite the same here without ya'! Great looking coin, you have great tastes for old coins.

 

Nah, I never get burned out buying things I am truly passionate about. I love numismatics, it was my first hobby. Not to mention it is also one of the few activities that helps me unwind and relax.

However, now that I have a collection of 20+ ancient coins and I have more focused goals about what I want to collect, I will probably be acquiring ancients at a slower rate. Probably one or two ancient coins a month. It also doesn't help that my second favorite hobby is fountain pens, which is also super expensive. I probably spend more money on fountain pens than coins, which I'm sure a lot of you might consider crazy as most people would think anything over $5 on a pen is insane.

 

As a matter of fact, I will be travelling to Cuba this winter or next spring. I haven't been there in over 21 years. I left Cuba on March 14, 1995 as the son of a political prisoner and with a ban on my family ever returning. I never thought I'd get the opportunity to visit the country of my birth again...but things have changed. I talked to the Cuban embassy and it seems I can now visit Cuba, as things have gotten much more relaxed over the last year.

 

Awesome for you! Grew up with Cubano friends in the exact same situation! Their fathers were Engineers, Physicists, Business people. I am looking forward to your comments upon your return!