New purchases! A couple of 1st century Sestertii - what's not to love about these big chunky coins??

Yes, I like my denarii. And as I've posted before, I enjoy collecting interesting as reverse types. But there's something special about a sestertius. Hefting that big chunk of bronze in the hand gives a real sense of tangible wealth - it must have been a favorite of the ancient Romans. Common sums were counted in sesterces. The sestertius out-lasted the denarius as a common circulation coin.

Sestertii of the first century AD especially are awe-inspiring: nearly a full ounce of rich, golden orichalcum bronze, with exquisitely fine portrait artistry, and often featuring fascinating reverse designs. The finest engravers, it seems, were put to sestertii production. The quality of output was extraordinary; one almost never sees a 1st century sestertius weakly struck, off center, or struck from worn dies.

It's not too often I can afford to splurge on these coins, but recently I was able to acquire these two. The first is this fine specimen featuring Titus as Caesar under his father Vespasian:





Really any early empire sestertius is special, but I've always wanted one of Titus. Numismatic portrait artistry under the Flavians reached a very high level of quality, and Titus is of course a very famous figure in ancient history, known for his role in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and for his short reign during which Mt. Vesuvius erupted. His coins are typically the scarcest of all the Flavians, and consequently the most expensive.

This coin is far from perfect, but I was able to find what I believe is a double-die match on acsearch.info, and so while there may be some smoothing, I don't think there's been any tooling going on. The portrait is good and the reverse is even better. The yellowish orichalcum shows a little through the green patina. Thanks to @David Atherton for allowing me to quote from his collection description.



The second sestertius is an earlier one, struck under Claudius in the year 42:





Sestertii of Claudius are some of the earliest sestertii, at least of the type with which we are most familiar (featuring the imperial portrait.) This coin was struck within a year of Caligula's assassination, at the beginning of his uncle Claudius' reign. The reverse type is interesting because it proclaims Claudius as PATER PATRIAE "Father of the Nation," - OB CIVES SERVATOS - "for saving the citizens". These titles were awarded to Augustus by a grateful (or perhaps cowed) Senate decades earlier, and while an argument could be made for Augustus it's hard to see how Claudius merited such honors given his previous lack of involvement in politics, and the fact that he was less than a year into his reign! Of course, Caligula had coopted the same honorifics, and maybe the Senate was just happy for the respite.

Two things make this particular sestertius special - first, it's not a product of the Rome mint. Under both Claudius and Nero a branch mint operated, probably somewhere in the Balkans, striking Imperial coinage. The little indentation in the center of both obverse and reverse is the giveaway - this was a part of flan production not employed in Rome. It's less common than the Rome mint variety, though it is not really rare.

The other special thing about this coin is that it comes from the @curtislclay collection. Curtis Clay is certainly one of the top authorities in ancient numismatics today, and I'm very grateful for the couple times he's helped me on the forums. Being able to own a coin from his collection is pretty cool IMO and helped tip my decision in favor to purchase.

Thanks for looking! Please feel free to comment, and post your own favorite sestertii!

 

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Fantastic coins, I especially love your photo presentation of them, well done and congrats on a couple of great buys. One of my favorites is this Sestertius from Tiberius showing the temple of Concordia in the Forum. Tiberius Æ Sestertius.(33mm, 25.5gm) Rome, AD 35-36. The Temple of Concordia: Concordia seated left on throne, holding patera and sceptre, above altar within hexastyle façade set on podium; entrance flanked by statues of Hercules and Mercury; pediment decorated with statues of Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and Victories in acroteria; wings of transverse cella with windows behind; pediments decorated with statues / TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVST P M TR POT XXXVII around large S•C. RIC 61; C. 69; BMC 116; BN 100.

 

Here's mine. Bought this at MGM in Munchen across from Lowenbrau Keller last year and was the beginning of the serious collecting. Really love the weight and details of this coin, and it helped that my wife found some nice jewelry in the store next to the coin shop.

Marcus Aurelius AE Sestertius. Struck 163-164 AD.
Obverse: M AVREL ANTONINVS AVG - ARMENIACVS P M, radiate head right.
Reverse: TR P XVIII IMP II COS III S-C, Mars standing
right holding spear and resting hand on shield.
RIC 861, Cohen 838.
31mm, 26.93g

 

Beautiful! Of all the early non-portrait sestertii that one is one of my favorites. You don't see them come up for sale very often either.