This one arrived over the holiday weekend. Domitian AR Denarius Rome mint, 91 AD RIC 725 (C), BMC 183, RSC 270 Obv: IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P XI; Head of Domitian, laureate, bearded, r. Rev: IMP XXI COS XV CENS P P P; Minerva stg. r., on capital of rostral column, with spear and sheild; to r., owl (M2) This common denarius was struck between mid September and 31 December 91. A noticeable dip in both the quality and style of some of Domitian's denarii started to appear in the early 90s. The rigorous high consistency of only just a few years prior had been replace by a more 'roughshod' appearance in some of the coins, reminiscent of denarii struck very early in his reign, however, the fineness remained at a higher level. This coin is a good example of the more relaxed standard, not fine, but not outright crude. Evidence of a large issue where many engravers had to be employed, some less talented than others! Dull? Perhaps. But what it tells us about large issues of denarii is quite interesting. Not to mention the graffiti on the reverse doesn't appear modern.
Nice => that's a sweet pickup, V70 (oh, and I agree with chrsmat ... cool owl) The graffiti is kind of cool on both of your coin examples (hmmm, I can't recall if I have any graffiti examples?)
Nice one 'V' (love the reverse and owl) and even more interesting examples when the graffiti is also considered on both posts. Like Steve, I can't recall if I actually own one with graffiti, although I know I bid on a few over the year--I'll give it a look this afternoon.
Well, I just gave a look and so far only one has 'graffiti' as part of the ID slip....I resized it to allow a better view, since it happens to be on my recently purchased Augustus-Lucius/Gaius denarius. Although they look more like scratches than a purposeful marking to me, or perhaps both? The V or W marks under Augustus' chin:
