Grail coin acquired

A most wonderful 'grail' indeed! I would certainly say a de rigueur acquisition for anyone collecting Flavians.

Mine is solid silver as well.

Vespasian
AR Denarius, 3.10g
Lyon mint, 71 AD
Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG TR P; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r.
Rev: IVDAEA DEVICTA; Palm tree; to l., Judaea stg. l., hands bound in front
RIC 1120 (C). BMC 388. RSC 243. BNC 297. Hendin 1488.
Acquired from eBay, March 2012.

A Judaea Capta type unique to the mint of Lyon. Minted in 71 AD, more specimens of this type are seen plated than not. This coin is an example of the solid variant. The evidence that this type was well know as a fourrée in ancient times can be seen from the test marks behind the neck and below the chin of the portrait. I'm not entirely convinced the plated coins are the work of forgers. Could the plated examples be the work of unscrupulous mint workers?

 

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Thanks for posting your example David. I think your theory concerning the fourees is quite plausible.

 

Congrats, The Red! Brilliant mint; not one I even aspire to. (...But if you had any interest in selling the cut half.... I liked to emphasise York, Durham and mints on the Welsh Marches, for Henry and Edward I, when I was still really collecting this stuff.)
To lurch further into self-indulgence, it became necessary to look up the lyrics to "The Lochmaben Harper." ...Wish I could find the first reading of that I ever heard. It was a while ago.

 

Okay, this was the last grail coin to get here.
Norman Italy. Roger I, Count of Sicily, AE follaro, Messina or Mileto (in Calabria), c. 1098-1101.
Obv. Roger on horseback, with Norman, 'kite-shaped' shield; holding a lance, its pennant trailing into the right field.
(From 12 o'clock: ) ROO[/'G'] ...E... RIVS ...COME... S.
Rev. The Madonna, seated, holding the infant Jesus.
(From 1 o'clock: ) +... MARIA ... MATER DNI.
(Andrea /Contreras, Norman Coins of the Kingdom of Sicily 131 (pp.130-131), notably citing the operant volume of Grierson, et al., MEC. Cf. pp. 99-103 for a summary of the reign, along with Loud, The Age of Robert Guiscard, esp. 124-5. For the the coin, there's also Kluge, Numismatik des Mittelalters, pl. 822.)
Was circling for examples of this online for a few years. This one had the right convergence of condition and price. In hand, it's better than the pictures, both for the motifs (especially the obverse, resonantly evoking the Bayeux Tapestry) and the legends.

 

That is an awesome coin! Wow what a piece. Congrats on capturing this excellent piece.

 

Many thanks, Orfew. Over the last couple of years, I'd been sporadically trawling for stuff of the milieu of Robert Guiscard. Have yet to land anything securely attributed to him. But, despite Grierson's caveat in MEC (as quoted in Andrea, n. 14), the obverse Nails depictions on the Bayeux Tapestry on at least three fronts: the shield, the pennant on the lance, and the way the knight carries the lance, on his shoulder, ready to launch if necessary, instead of couched, as in the case of heavier lances, into the 12th century and later.