A recent acquisition I'm just now getting around to playing with. Titus AR Quinarius, 1.55g Rome mint, 79-80 AD RIC 91 (C), BMC 108, RSC 356 Obv: IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M; Head of Titus, laureate, bearded, r. Rev: VICTORIA AVGVST (clockwise, inwardly, from low l.); Victory adv. r., with wreath and palm Ex CNG E399, 14 June 2017, lot 486. Titus struck a small undated issue of quinarii, most of which are fairly rare. This traditional Victory type is copied from quinarii minted by Vespasian. Struck in a fine and neat style, typical of the mint during this period. Boy, do I really love these Flavian quinarii! Post any tiny treasures you have, Flavian or not.
Nice pickup David. I really like the portraits on these quinarii Here is my quinarius but it not Flavian. It is Marcus Antonius. However, it does have victory on the reverse. In fact the poses are similar. Is this another example of Flavian coins paying homage to earlier coins?
A terrific coin! A very apt post considering I'm in the middle of re-watching HBO's Rome series. I do believe the Flavian Victories are indeed paying homage to the earlier issues. It seems to have been a major theme of the Rome mint in the early Flavian era to do so.
Intriguing little coin! I don't have a single quinarius to show. I'll certainly be on the lookout for one!
very fine coin! i only have one quin. in my collection thus far and it's of the time of the social wars. M. Cato 89bc.
I really like that. Nice toning and overall appearance. I've never had a quinarius. (Or siliqua, either, for that matter.)
LOL I'll definitely not bring my 10mm hekte over for a play date, then! I remember my grandmother's apartment in 1979 had mustard-yellow shag carpeting. (Ahh, tackiness, thy name was "1970s".) Grammy was totally paranoid about me having my coins out in her living room. If you were playing with anything smaller than the average housecat in that room, she would say, "NOT ON THE CARPET!!! IT'LL GET STUCK IN THE VACUUM CLEANER!" More off-topic reminiscences of my paternal grandmother, who passed away in 1980: She was farsighted, and even with glasses on, had a hard time threading needles. She'd call me over to do that. She wore dentures. She had difficulty bending to pick things up, which made her all the more paranoid about the shag carpet. She was everything you'd ever want in a grandparent, but had a bit of a temper and was known to attack inanimate objects when she lost it (she once hacked a cardboard milk carton to shreds with a butcher knife when she couldn't get it open the normal way). Fast forward 38 years, and with the exception of gender and the fact that I'm not a grandparent myself yet, all of the items above now describe ME. I not only miss her ... I've become her. (Sort of.)
(Back on topic) There were gold quinarii too, right? Struck from the same dies as the silver ones sometimes? Like the denarius/aureus die linkages?
(Aaaand back to the shag carpet theme) I once lost a loose Indian gold fanam in @Aethelred's living room. We finally gave up the search. Months later, if I remember correctly, he or his spouse swept it out from beneath the refrigerator ... in his kitchen. So with tiny coins you don't even need shag carpeting for them to enter the Twilight Zone. (OK. Enough. I shall now cease and desist. On with the original topic.)
The strong tendency for Imperial AR quinarii to use the Victory reverse is a tradition which was preserved and came down from the time of the "Victoriatus" - a similarly small AR coin of the earlier Republic which was a fraction of one of the earlier larger denominations like the quadrigatus.
This is my little Quanarius alongside my Galba denarius for comparison. The Galba turned up today and I am posting for some comments separately. This one is M.Cato with Victory seated on the reverse. Sear 248 RRC 343/2. Diameter is 13.7mm and the weight is 2.12 gms. As you can see I am still working on the photography............
The Flavians striking quinarii with traditional reverse types perfectly illustrates just how antiquarian the Rome mint was under them. Even the new designs the mint came up with were traditional in appearance. Perhaps it has something to do with Vespasian coming from a humble background?