When You Come Across a Lefty Domitian, You really have Something!

While waiting on the arrival of a coin to continue part 2 of this story https://www.cointalk.com/threads/second-chances-part-one.317718/ , another little beauty arrived.

Left facing portraits are very scarce for Domitian, whether struck for him as Caesar or as Augustus. If you come across one, snatch it up!


Domitian as Caesar
AR Denarius, 3.08g
Rome Mint, 79 AD
RIC V1085 (R2). BMC p. 47 note. RSC 385.
Obv: CAESAR AVG F DOMITIANVS COS VI; Head of Domitian, laureate, bearded, l.
Rev: PRINCEPS IVVENTVTIS; Salus, stg. r., resting on column, feeding snake out of patera
Acquired from eBay, 10 June 2018.

An extremely rare left portrait variant of the common Salus feeding snake type struck for Domitian Caesar under Vespasian. The reverse may be an illusion to Vespasian's ill health preceeding his death on 24 June 79. No specimens in the BM's collection, citing the Paris collection. A double die match with the RIC plate coin.

This is a coin I would accept in almost any condition ... it will be a long wait for a better one!

Hopefully the postal gods will be more cooperative next week for my ongoing Pegasus story!

 

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Wonderful acquisition David. I have been looking for a left facing Domitian denarius for a while. Rest assured as soon as I see one I will make every effort to grab it. In the meantime, you have made another excellent addition to that great collection of yours.

 

Way to go, David! Nice coin! Is it just left facing denarius that are rare or are other denominations too? Or provincial?

 

Thanks Justin. Yes, left facing portraits on Domitian's denarii are rare. They are more common on his bronze and provincial issues.

 

Very interesting and good to know. Thanks !

 

Very nice addition, Dave, congrats!

 

I've got a sinister provincial....

 

Super-congrats @David Atherton ! That is cool that you found hard-to-find South Paw Domitians! I enjoy finding tough to find coins.


WOW, an amazing thing!

With the simple press of a button, I NOW have ULTRA-RARE Domitians! (Too bad they don't flip in my Saflips!)



RI Domitian AR Denarius 81-96 CE Minerva FLIPPED-JOKE


RI Domitian AR Denarius 81-96 CE Minerva spear shield VIC GENS FLIPPED-Joke

NOW they are "SINISTER" by MODERN terms! Even RETROGRADE legends!

Just jokes...

 

Think I've shown this one in the past but its purty sweet bronze.

 

If it was only that easy!

 

Neat find!

 

I agree that left facing Domitians are scarce but i seems especially strange since both his father Vespasian and brother Titus are strongly represented by lefty portrait coins. Why? I can not say. Further we might ask why there are so many emperors whose left facing portraits are many times more rare than their right facing portraits. It might be easier for us to understand zero than a number as small as we see. There are a few, of course, where lefties outnumber righties. These statistics have been well recorded and perhaps even studied but "why" is never an easy question. We are left to wonder if there ever was an answer why we are so unable to discover it.

 

That is so true. Much of what we know about these issues don't answer the 'why'. Even the reason why this particular Salus reverse type was chosen to be struck in the first half of 79 is a mystery - a best guess is never a sure answer.

 

Here's my left Domitian Antoich as!

 

I have found this one on roman site with metal detector.

 

Has anyone ever looked at a chronological chart of each ruler's coins to see if succeeding rulers alternated facing? That could just be an easy way for the
minters to tell production apart. Color posters exist in many museum gift shops
but I don't have one handy to look at thus I ask if it has been done already.

 

It's pretty interesting looking at lefty-righty coins of the same emperor. One that has as lot of distinctive types is Probus.

 

Perhaps I should have specified comparing the last coin of one emperor with the first coin of the succeeding emperor.

 

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