I am really excited about this one. A couple of months ago I found a PONT denarius that was misattributed by the seller. I gave them a call a few hours ago and we made a deal over the phone. They will ship by fedex tomorrow so I should have it soon. It is a D73! I know there is one on Lucas' gallery on forum and RIC lists one from the UBS 59 auction in 2004. I have not been able to find any others so I think this one is the 3rd known. There are 0 examples on OCRE. I love that the PONT is so clear on this coin. The portrait also has lots of character. The obverse legend is very nice. I cannot say the same for the reverse legend...but one cannot have everything.The other thing I like is that it has DOMITIAN instead of Domitianus in the obverse legend. The Domitian legend is scarcer than the Domitianus legend on PONT denarii. This makes 6 PONT denarii for me! I do not have the largest collection of these yet. I think David has 8 and Alberto on Forum has 13 of them! Normally this PONT denarius would have made 7 examples. However, for reasons best explained later one of my PONT denarii departed from me a few days ago.
Congrats on acquiring a very elusive coin! Hmmm, I have 8 PONT denarii? Looks like you're catching up!
Since I don’t own either of the other two I have no relevant example to share. Just figured I’d stop by and say great coin Orfew!
Hi, I hope the following will address your question. Thanks for commenting. PONT Denarii An interesting feature of the first year denarii is the use of PONT in the obverse legends in groups 2, 3, and 4. If group 1 denarii were struck before the addition of the title PONT it makes sense that group 1 denarii do not include this title. However, groups 2,3, and 4 all contain denarii that have both PONT and denarii that use PM in the obverse legends. The speculation is that PONT was used as a placeholder of sorts until Domitian was formally granted the title of PONTIFEX MAXIMVS or PM. If this is the case the why do denarii in each group use both PONT and PM? Remember that these groups are ordered by the reverse legends and not the obverse legends. Group 2 contains only denarii and is comprised of 12 types. Of these types 9 of them contain PONT in the obverse legend. All of the coins in Group 2 are R2 or R3. (In other words Group 2 denarii are either very rare or extremely rare). In 2 years I have seen 1 come to market for sale. Unfortunately, I missed it and so I have no Group 2 Domitian denarii. I do have 6 of the PONT denarii: RIC 21, RIC 29, RIC 34, RIC 40, and RIC 68 and RIC 73. RIC 21, RIC 29 and RIC 34 are in Group 3; RIC 40, RIC 68, and RIC 73 are in Group 4. On 4 of my PONT denarii (RIC 21(2), RIC 29 and RIC 40) the legend reads IMP CAES DOMITIANVS AVG PONT (Obverse A). On RIC 34, RIC 68, and RIC 73 the legend reads IMP CAES DOMITIAN AVG PONT (Obverse B). There are 10 types of Domitian denarii using DOMITIAN and 18 for DOMITIANVS. These PONT denarii use one other legend: IMP CAES DIVI VESP F DOMIT AVG PONT (Obverse D). I do not have an example using this legend. There are only 3 types with this legend and they all R2 (very few examples known). Of the group 2 PONT denarii 5 are obverse A, 3 are obverse B, and 1 is obverse D. Within the Group 3 PONT denarii 7 are Obverse A, 3 are Obverse B, and 0 examples for Obverse D. In the group 4 denarii, 6 are obverse A, 4 are Obverse B and 2 for Obverse D. So within each group Obverse A examples are always more prevalent than Obverse B. Also, Obverse B examples are always more plentiful than Obverse D examples.
Thank you for the comprehensive answer. I find it interesting. The many variations in the first year at the mint do not seem to indicate a stable power. In any case, it seems that Domitian emperorship was not planned for September 81. I sometimes wonder how steady he held the power immediately after Titus died. Unfortunately we miss the Histories of Tacitus at this point.
