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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;David Atherton, post: 4361417, member: 82616&quot;]My latest coin is a quadrans struck for Vespasian and it apparently has caused some confusion.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1102701[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Vespasian</b></p><p>Æ Quadrans, 2.45g</p><p>Rome Mint, 75 AD</p><p>Obv: IMP VESPASIAN AVG; Rudder on globe</p><p>Rev: P M TR P P P COS VI; Caduceus, winged</p><p>RIC 825 (R). BMC 715. BNC 740.</p><p>Acquired from Marc Breitsprecher, April 2020.</p><p><br /></p><p>This specimen has erroneously been attributed as unique in the unpublished RIC II.1 Addenda and assigned the catalogue number 736A.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1102703[/ATTACH]</p><p>The RIC authors misread the present coin without S C as reading COS V and assigned it a wholly new catalogue number. The coin actually reads COS VI (RIC 825), with the &#039;I&#039; connecting to the caduceus&#039; wand, which caused the confusion. I can categorically say without doubt that RIC 736A does not exist and is a phantom coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>The quadrans in the early imperial period typically lacked an imperial portrait. Possibly the denomination was deemed so lowly by mint officials that a portrait was considered improper. They were struck haphazardly and functioned primarily as an urban low value coinage in Rome and central Italy. The quadrans was the typical fee for entry into the baths, a urinal, or for a tryst in a cheap brothel. Being of rather low value quadrantes were not typically hoarded and thus are relatively scarce today. The rudder over globe suggests Vespasian&#039;s continued steady hand guiding the empire.</p><p><br /></p><p>Feel free to post your phantom or truly unlisted coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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