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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;David Atherton, post: 3162582, member: 82616&quot;]A specialist collector does not just check off catalogue numbers - he or she gets into the nooks and crannies of those numbers.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is one of those nooks, or indeed crannies, of a very common Vespasian denarius type.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]812241[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Vespasian</b></p><p>AR Denarius, 3.28g</p><p>Rome Mint, January - June 70 AD</p><p>RIC 29 (C3). BMC 26. RSC 94h.</p><p>Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r.</p><p>Rev: COS ITER TR POT; Pax, draped, seated l., holding branch extended in r. hand and winged caduceus in l.</p><p>Acquired from Aegean Numismatics, August 2018.</p><p><br /></p><p>This seated Pax is by far the most common type of the &#039;COS ITER&#039; issue. It may even have been struck well after June 70, evidenced by the vast quantities that have survived and the classic Vespasianic portrait many of them display (Vespasian arrived in Rome c. October 70). COS ITER in the reverse legend is sometimes unusually spaced dependent on where Pax&#039;s branch is positioned - here the break occurs between the &#039;T&#039; and &#039;E&#039;. Most examples do not have such a break.</p><p><br /></p><p>The seated Pax was struck in such vast numbers so early in Vespasian&#039;s reign as a propaganda type to help heal the many wounds after a devastating Civil War and the rebellions in Batavia and Judaea. The restoration of the Roman World was a major theme of the fledgling Flavian dynasty. The coinage announced &#039;all would be well&#039;.</p><p><br /></p><p>My other example of the type, notice the nice shock of hair on Vespasian. Evidently the engraver did not have a life-like bust of Vespasian to go by. There is no break in COS ITER either.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]812246[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Vespasian</b></p><p>AR Denarius, 3.39g</p><p>Rome Mint, January - June 70 AD</p><p>RIC 29 (C3). BMC 26. RSC 94h.</p><p>Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r.</p><p>Rev: COS ITER TR POT; Pax, draped, seated l., holding branch extended in r. hand and winged caduceus in l.</p><p>Acquired from Hail Cesare, eBay, August 2004.</p><p><br /></p><p>Feel free to post any coins from a nook or cranny.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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