This coin came recently from LAC, described as 'retrograde legends'. Since the legends started at 1h, a 180 rotation made it clear the legends were normal... Discounted price as well - scarcity counts for little. A couple of our members have something similar, spanning both early and late obverse legends - clearly the error dies occurred on occasion, and were put to use regardless. The coin reminds me of the USA 'inverted jenny' 24c stamp - fortunately much cheaper. I'd be interested in any similar examples out there - they are clearly not unique, just unusual.
I’m not sure I understand what is meant by retrograde legends. The legends seem to line up pretty closely with my example. I don’t see an “error” in the OP example – – it seems to be within the realm of standard practice for the die engraver. Maybe I am missing something.
Now my Vespasian, on the other hand, has a true retrograde legend. The obverse legend can be read counterclockwise and the letters are upside down.
Oh that is interesting. That’s what I get for not paying attention. You had better not hire me to do your taxes.
In clarification, the legends started at 1h on the seller image 'PACE PR...', my image has the reverse rotated 180 degrees so they start at 7h as usual.
The question here is whether the temple or the legends were engraved first. Whichever was second, the engraver mistook 'up' and cut with the other was upside down. To me, it seems more likely that the building was first but the lettering cutter placed it upside down and did the letters accordingly. There are variations of these that are not errors but just different like the one below that has the temple facing to the left. Upside down is certainly an error. I believe I recall someone else posting a coin like this in the past on CT. I do wonder if it was the same die or if the same error was made more than once.
I have shown this previously - but seems appropriate here.... an "error" on the same coin type: Below is my modest example with an unusual minting error - most probably showing that the legends were cut by a different person than the artist cutting the Temple image: As you can see the " S C " is reversed and the word "CLVSIT" (meaning closed) is at the 12 o'clock position ... as opposed the the 6 o'clock position... as intended and shown on the examples displayed on this thread. Inverting my coin shows the legend in the correct alignment.. and the "SC" makes more sense.. but with an upside down temple.. showing that multiple cutters most probably worked on the same die... the wires got crossed in this example..
Mike, Nice score !. For CT members not familiar with the 24 cent inverted Jenny postage stamp, pictured below is an example. Single stamps have sold for over $1,000,000.00 each . Only one sheet of 100 stamps was mistakenly released by the U.S. Post Office .
Having a closer look, probable BD on the Ob near IMP, and few other spots here & there I don't much like the look of. Needs some work looks like.
Have you dealt the BD? You might want to put the coin in distilled water bath for at least a week. If the water turns green, change it. Those brown-red deposits looks like very typical spots for BD to develop, and you might need to remove them in order to remove the underlying BD. But that's down the road and may not be necessary.
