A Sestertius of Vespasian

Thank you Doug, iceman and Roman Collector for your comments.

I have to correct myself a little:
The inscription 'OB SIVES CERVATOS' within Corona Civica, meant to reflect merit bestowed on the emperor for savings the lives of citizens, appears only on bronzes of Augustus, Gaius, Claudius, Galba and Vespasian. It was not used on bronzes of Hadrian, as I had incorrectly noted.

Further, it is noteworthy, as Paul noted above, that this symbolic inscription does not appear on bronzes of later emperors. This is interesting in view of the fact that some of the later emperors (Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius come to mind), in my opinion, proved themselves more worthy of this honor than some of the emperors who did use it. (Claudius is one example which is quoted in this respect).

The Wreath motif did continue to be used by Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and others, but with different inscriptions, for example SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI (Trajan and Antoninus Pius), and PRIMI DECENNALES (Marcus Aurelius).
Medaillons for Hadrian with the wreath motif also exist.

 

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I have three OB CIVES SERVATOS Sestertii now (Caligula, Claudius, and Galba),
all in my favorite yellow, unpatinated Orichalcum tone:

 

Very nice, JG.
We seem to have the same taste in coins.

 

Great OP coin!

 

Some examples of sestertii of Gaius, Claudius and Galba with OB CIVES SERVATOS within Corona Civica.

 

An an aureus for Claudius with an abbreviated inscription in wreath.

Claudius, 41-54 AD.
Aureus, 51-52 AD. Rome.
RIC 63.

 

likes likes likes

 

Eduard—Do you know how when you buy a new car you all of a sudden start seeing the same type of car everywhere? For me—Vespasians everywhere! I don't have any like these though. Yours are the Cadillac (Mercedes) of Vespasians. Mine are more like the Ford Focus of Vespasians. Thanks for posting them!

 

Looking at your Sestertii, it is easy to notice :-D

 

Great coin Eduard!

I found an additonal provenance. Apparently it comes from the collection of Prince Waldeck as it is included as lot 344 in the auction of Muenzhandlung Basel 1 from 28 June 1934. It seems Seaby bought it there and immediately put it on their July FPL.

 

Fantastic pick-up, Meander!

Here's the ACsearch link to that auction and lot:

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2916325

 

Thank you very much, Meander and TIF for your invaluable help!
Very much appreciated.
I never thought myself much of a 'provenance' person, but this one is quite significant due to the quality of the Waldeck Collection.
Great to know and thanks to you!

Eduard.

 

Great Coin, Congratulations! Don't worry about the lost coins. I worked out years ago that if I obtained any coin without pecuniary disadvantage then the pleasure of collecting was lost to me.

 

Thanks to the kind help of TIF and Meander I was able to find the complete copy of the Münzhandlung Basel sale catalog #1, of June 1934 of the Prinz Waldeck collection of roman bronzes.

I have attached pictures of some of the plates from this collection.
The catalog describes that the collection was put together by an (unnamed) prince around the middle of the 19th century, and that it was assembled primarily during trips to Italy.

source: Digital data collection of the Library of the University of Heidelberg:

I guess the fact that it was Prince Waldeck became knowledge after the sale.

I thought it may be interesting for some to see this - specialize off you love roman bronzes!


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This plate illustrates the beautiful example of the Coliseum sestertius sold at this auction in June 1934.

 

Great addition @Eduard with a very distinctive portrait and nice colour to it

Congrats
Q