Over the past couple of weeks I've been enjoying ITV's Grantchester detective series, so it's only fitting that my recent acquisition required a bit of sleuthing to attribute. Vespasian AR Denarius, 3.20g Ephesus Mint, 70 AD RIC 1418 (R3), BMC -, RSC -, RPC - Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPAS AVG COS II TR P P P; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r. Rev: LIBERI IMP AVG VESPAS; Heads of Titus, bare, r., and Domitian, bare, l., confronting; BY in r. field (on its side, obscured) The confronting heads of Titus and Domitian is one of the rarest reverse type struck at Ephesus for Vespasian. RIC lists this extremely rare variant with mintmark sideways in right field as 'unique'. The mintmark on my coin is obscured, so the hunt was on to locate a reverse die match that would hopefully show which mintmark the die originally had. The COS II dated coins at Ephesus have one of two two marks: horizontal Φ and BY. Luckily, I was able to find a match - Lanz 128, 22 May 2006, lot 322, which showed the BY mintmark, confirming my coin's attribution. Since the publication of the new RIC, I have identified 4 specimens of this extremely rare variant with the sideways mark, all from the same reverse die. Also, take note of the unusual break in the reverse legend: V - ESPAS. As you can tell, I really do love these Ephesian denarii!
Way Cool !!! I love your passion and enthusiasm!! I lost a 'Rome mint' version of your coin with the cool "provincial" bust that has most puzzled and disagreeing......otherwise I'd post it here
@Mikey Zee I'm sorry to hear that you lost out on it. Take comfort in the fact the Rome versions of this type are much more common. Either I totally forgot about your lost coin or never saw it, could you please post an image here, I would love to see the style.
@zumbly Harry Sneh and I had a long correspondence about a possible no mintmark Vespasian COS III issue at Ephesus (we concluded there is one), so this coin was interesting to me either way!
Nice pick up vespasian70 good detail on the busts, your right about Ephesus, I am the same and need more coins of the Domitian era. If anyone is interested the ruins of Ephesus are fantastic very well worth seeing, I was there last year and gobsmacked. Here is what Domitian's temple at Ephesus looks like today.
That is a remarkable photo! Thanks for sharing it. Numismatically, a great coin to go along with the photo would be a Domitian cistophorus - although struck at Rome, they were sent to Asia Minor for circulation.
Unfortunately I haven't got one of them, I especially like the temple of Jupiter ones. Live in hope....
I can't seem to access it on CNG's printed auction #103 but here's a far higher grade example with the same obverse portrait characteristics:
Oh, that style is definitely Rome. Here is my 'Spanish' provincial of the type for comparison. The seller had misattributed it to Rome. When in doubt, look for dots in the legend, for some reason this Spanish mint (Tarraco?) used them.
