Domitian's denarius output can seem very monolithic at times. The same four Minerva types show up year after year with only occasional relief with a few very rare types. The fun in collecting his denarii is in finding the rare dating combinations, and there are many such combos! Here is my latest Domitian rarity. Domitian AR Denarius, 3.20g Rome mint, 86 AD RIC 447 (R), BMC (Specimen acquired 1987), RSC - Obv: IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P VI; Head of Domitian, laureate, bearded, r. Rev: IMP XII COS XII CENS P P P; Minerva stg. l., with thunderbolt and spear, shield at her l. side (M3) Imperial acclamations were awarded to Domitian at a fairly quick pace during 86 because of the Dacian campaign. Many issues were struck only for a brief time before news arrived of a new imperial salutation. This denarius is from the very rare third issue of the year. It's my first denarius from this issue and I'm glad it's in fairly fine style.
Always nice to see your growing collection, with all those rarities, worthless to plebeians but of high value for a specialist. The whole is amazing Congrats Q
I see nothing dull about it. When I first began collecting, I always thought only certain emperor's portraits were unique. Little did I know. Domitian's portraits are some of the best and most recognizable.
Congrats @vespasian70 !! That's a LOVELY well struck and centered scarce example!! GIMMEE!!! GIMMEE!!!...Sorry, We've had a lot of family and kids here lately...and again today BTW: I'm after a couple of Titus (I seem to have neglected him of late) and even another of Vespasian, if 'Fortune" smiles on me
I think of Domitian's Minerva series as a Flavian version of 'campgates', so there are probably more than a few who would find them 'dull'.
Who's calling campgates dull? Just kidding! I like how you geek out on interesting date combinations.
Nothing dull about that Domitian, nicely struck and has good details. Looks like I should add more denari coins to my collection.
Actually, if I collected LRBs, campgates would be just the kind of thing I'd be knee deep in the weeds and obsessing over. Us specialist understand each other.
I'm mostly a generalist in ancients but am a specialist in exonumia so I understand it. For example I have three tokens in a series that are essentially the same except minted in different materials and one has an unlisted year. These things excite me so I know how it excites other specialists.
Define 'specialist'. I'll suggest it is someone who realizes a complete set of the specialty is impossible because there is always the hope for finding what no one even dreamed to exist.
I used to think it was possible to acquire a complete set of Domitian's Minerva or 'pulvinaria' series. After I discovered a completely new Minerva issue of his struck in late 88, that dream went out the window. It's impossible to collect a complete set of anything if you don't even know what's out there!
