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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lrbguy, post: 2862438, member: 88829&quot;]This thread got by me, so I am very late to the party.&nbsp; Some really nice looking coins above, and a wealth of material from a popular emperor.&nbsp; Good show everyone!!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Vespasian (71 A.D.)</b></p><p><b>Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespiasianus</b></p><p><b><i>BMCRE</i> 453; <i>RSC</i> 67; <i>RIC</i> 329</b></p><p><b>Minted in Ephesus</b></p><p><b><img src="https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/uploaded/lrbguy/20170812_10-Vespasian-den1-sm.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>IMP CAESAR VESPAS AVG COS III TR P PP</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>As a general, Vespasion was often charged to &quot;pacify&quot; disrupted parts of the empire in an after the Civil Wars. In many respects this role continued as emperor, aided by the ministrations of his son, Titus, and so the coinage for Vespasian is considerable, from a number of mints around the empire.</p><p><br /></p><p>Unlike Tiberius, whose visage on his denarii belie his advanced years (52) when he assumed the purple, busts of Vespasion leave no doubt that he was all of 60 years of age when he was called to the imperial office. Moreover, he held that office for 10 more years, and the coins do not hold back the truth about his appearance. For this reason, distinguishing father and son, despite common naming elements, is generally not a problem.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>CONCORDIA AVG</b></p><p><b>in exergue EPHE (second set ligatured)</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>Ceres, veiled, draped, seated left on throne, foot on stool, holding two heads of wheat and a poppy extended in right hand, and cornucopia in left.</p><p><br /></p><p>The detail on the reverse is extraordinary considering that the surface area is 29% smaller than normal. (diameter = 16mm vs 19mm). Nonetheless, I could not help being surprised by how masculine the face of Ceres appears in this rendering. The size of the nose and the strength of the jaw seems unusually large for a woman, in my limited experience. I also found it interesting that the grain represents one of the great necessities of life, but here they are supplemented with a poppy (the round object on a stick). Whatever it takes to keep the people happy, I guess.</p><p><br /></p><p>Noteworthy too is the use of an abbreviated place name in the exergue to designate the mint. The last two characters are ligatured across the top, and are only similar in appearance to the letters EPE, the middle being more like a Greek letter Phi. There has been some dispute as to whether or not this represents the initial letters of Ephesus.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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