First Titus!

Well after a year or so of casually (well - at times intensely) looking for a bronze of Titus – this arrived today! Extremely excited to add my first Titus to my collection!!

Also a plus that it arrived before our civilization collapsed – timing is everything!

The coin certainly has its problems as you can see but I kept coming back to it as I could not get the portrait out of my mind. With the legend and reverse issues I just couldn’t justify the price being asked. Other options came and went – but I compared them all to this – in the end the coin decided its next custodian. Trying to balance price with what you personally see as important in any given coin is an interesting process. I am sure this coin would rate very low in all categories by a slabbing service – but the portrait artistry really hooked me, and I kept coming back. Frankly if the coin had no issues I would never be able to afford it..

My solution on the price? I had another coin target from the same seller – so I combined the two and made an offer. We came to a very fair agreement at a price point we both seemed happy with. He accepted payment over a couple of installments – so after all of this time it certainly feels great to finally have the coin in hand!

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Titus AE As. AD 80
OBV: IMP T CAES VESP AVG P M TR P COS VIII Laureate head left
REV: PAX AVGVST S-C, Pax standing left, holding branch and caduceus
​

Question on references… I do not own RIC.

The seller references RIC II 236, Windwinds has the same attribution but quotes RIC 230. I own Sear and it looks like Sear 2549 – but he cross references that to RIC 129(b)​

Luckily we have no shortage of Flavian experts here – so if you do not mind helping with my attribution it would be greatly appreciated.


Please post your coins of Titus or whatever you feel is relevant...

 

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VERY nice AE version, @Clavdivs !!! Sorry, I cannot help on attriution. Not really a collector in this area.

I do have a couple well circulated AR versions:


RI Titus 79-81 CE AR Denarius Sow piglets



RI Titus 79-81 CE AR Denarius Ceres seated corn ear poppy torch

 

I like it! Very nice portrait, like many Titus coins, I think.

I also only have one Titus:

 

That's a coin to really be proud to own @Clavdivs. Beautiful!

 

@Clavdivs......Really nice portrait I can see the appeal.....That eye looks real!....Congrats!

 

..that's an amazing portrait....one of the best i've ever seen..

 

Lovely coin @Clavdivs. Bravo and thanks for sharing.

 

I just happen to have close to the same coin but a sestertius in a lesser grade. It was one of the first coins I got when I restarted collecting.





Titus (Augustus)
Coin: Brass Sestertius
IMP T CAES VESP AVG P M TR P P P COS VIII - Head of Titus, laureate, right
PAX AVGVST S C - Pax standing left, holding branch and cornucopiae
Exergue:


Mint: Rome (80-81AD)
Wt./Size/Axis: 22.43g / 33.64mm / 180
References:
RIC 2, Pt. 1-Titus 154
Provenances:
Marc Breitsprecher
Acquisition/Sale: Ancient Imports Internet $0.00 7/17
Notes: Jun 13, 18 - The Gary R. Wilson Collection

 

Great coin, with a fantastic portrait. Congrats.

 

Great coin, I just have one Titus so far:

Titus, A.D. 79-81

Billon Tetradrachm, 25mm, 9.3 grams, 12h

EGYPT, Alexandria. Year 3 = A.D. 81

Obverse: AVTOK TITOY KAIE
OVEEPAEIANOY EEB; Laureate head right.

Reverse: OMO-NOIA; Homonoia seated left, holding out branch, LT in lower left field.

Reference: RPC 2467; Dattari 423

 

Beautifull portrait of Titus , congrats Claudius.

I have a Pax reverse from his father Vespasian:

 

That's a great portrait. Congrats!

Unfortunately, the attribution can't be nailed down because the end of both the obverse and reverse legend is not visible. Is it AVGVST or AVGVSTI?

Under Titus:
RIC 236 (R2) has Pax leaning against a column, so that is out
RIC 230 (C) is PAX AVGVST
RIC 232 (R2) is PAX AVGVSTI



The discrepancy in numbers is the different versions of RIC. The ones I posted above are from the latest edition.

 

That's a very good portrait on your as, @Clavdivs – I like it!

For me, too, Titus was the last Flavian emperor I added to my collection. I got a denarius for him as Caesar:


Titus (under Vespasian), Roman Empire, denarius, 75–79 AD, Rome mint. Obv: T CAESAR IMP VESPASIANVS, laureate head right. Rev: IOVIS CVSTOS, Jupiter standing left, holding patera and sceptre; altar at left. 19mm, 3.2g. Ref: RIC II Vespasian 176. Ex Sphinx Numismatics.

Apart from that, I have a Titus as in admittedly wretched condition. I bought it as a sort of curiosity for about $5. It is from the collection of the famous classicist Hildebrecht Hommel and came with a handwritten ticket that Hommel apparently made from recycled correspondence. The ticket has his name on the back, probably from an address line or similar.


Titus, Roman Empire, AE as, 80–81 AD, Rome mint. Obv: IMP T CAES VESP AVG [TR P COS] VIII, bust of Titus, laureate, l. Rev: AETERNIT [AVG or AVGVST], Aeternitas standing r., foot on globe, holding sceptre and cornucopia; in field, S-C. 27mm, 10.52g. Ref: RIC II Titus 218 or 220. Ex Hildebrecht Hommel collection, ex Busso Peus Nf., auction 422, part of lot 453.

 

That Titus denarius is misattributed. You gave the old RIC reference for the new ref RIC 874. The obverse legend of your coin ends with VESPASIAN and not VESPASIANVS. (It does not look as if the "VS" was removed or worn off.) RIC 874 is a common coin. I believe your coin is RIC 863, which is a very rare coin. I also happen to like the look of it very much.

 

This is a problem we all will have to learn to love. It is great when an author updates a book with an expanded edition but those new coins will have to be numbered with decimals or appended letters or the whole bunch will get numbered over from the start. I would prefer that they start over but not with a 1. If the new edition started with 10,001 so when you see a number you would know whether it was an old or new number.

 

It does get complicated. But... the latest edition of RIC II is already 13 years old (2007). Enough time I think for people to make the switch, especially dealers

 

Thanks a lot – I bought it as RIC 874 and had no idea!

EDIT: Here's another lesson in always checking seller's attributions twice. When I wanted to change my tag a second ago, I made a shameful discovery. Apparently, I correctly attributed it in hand when I bought the coin but nonetheless lazily copied the seller's info into my digital record, just assuming it was correct.

 

That's a beauty Clavdivs, I can definitely see the appeal. Bags of character.

 

This is a pretty nice as. I like the little smirk on Titus' face. I'll show you my only as of this emperor. It has a lot of mileage and dated from the time I was dreaming of building up a collection of Roman coins without spending more than 25$ a piece...I admit that I have cheated a few times in recent years...

TITUS as Lugdunum
28 mm 8.92g
AVG F TRP COS VI CENSOR T CAES IMP / S-C
Spes holding flower & hem of skirt
RIC 1273

 

That's a lovely coin, @Clavdivs ! A lot of eye-appeal.

Titus:


Titus in drag: