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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;David Atherton, post: 4889861, member: 82616&quot;]Sometimes a coin jumps out of the pack and makes you sit up and take notice. This one did so for me because of the tremendous eye-appeal and fine style. I just had to have it.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1180104[/ATTACH]<b>Vespasian</b></p><p>Æ Dupondius, 12.00g</p><p>Rome mint, 74 AD</p><p>Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPASIAN AVG; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r.</p><p>Rev: PON•MAX•TR•POT•P•P•COS V CENS•; Winged caduceus between crossed cornuacopiae</p><p>RIC 756 (C). BMC 886. BNC 904. RPC 1982 (3 spec.).</p><p>Acquired from CGB.fr, September 2020.</p><p><br /></p><p>Traditionally, the issue this rather strange laureate dupondius is from has been attributed to various different mints over the years. Previously, it has been attributed to Commagene (BMCRE II, pp.217-222) and Antioch (e.g. RPC II 1982-2005). T. Buttrey writing in the RIC II.1 unpublished A&amp;C explains - &#039;RIC 756-767 are irregular Dupondii, which should be taken together with Asses, semisses and quadrantes (RIC 1564-1581), forming together a single extraordinary issue in four denominations, distinct in typology and metal, as well as overall character from the regular coinage of the year. Although Eastern in aspect and reverse type, the circulation area of the dupondii is almost exclusively Gaul, Germany, Italy – i.e. the West, with scarcely any penetration of the East. Finds of the smaller denominations are rarely attested anywhere, East or West. The Eastern finds appear to be simply the débris of Mediterranean circulation. The correct attribution to Rome is proved by mules of the dupondii with regular issues (Buttrey, “Vespasian’s Roman Orichalcum: An Unrecognized Celebratory Coinage” in David M. Jacobson and Nikos Kokkinos, Judaea and Rome in Coins, 65 CBE – 135 CE (2012). The series had nothing to do with Syria or with the East at all, yet it was purposefully designed to appear non-Roman: the suppression of the traditional reverse sub-inscription S C throughout; the suppression of the radiate crown of the Dupondius; the shifting of the consular dating from the obv. to the rev.; the striking of all four denominations in orichalcum; and most obviously the selection of rev. dies which reek of the East. There is nothing like this series in the whole of Roman imperial coinage. It is a deliberate act of Orientalism, imposing the flavour of the East on a Western coinage.&#039;</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the less common right facing portrait variant, seemingly struck at a 1:2 ratio against the left facing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Feel free to post any coins that made you sit up and take notice.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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