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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Blake Davis, post: 3907768, member: 91820&quot;]I recently purchased this wonderful As of Geta, RIC 129(b), Aesculapius standing between two snakes, in distyle&nbsp; temple. The coin is large - almost 27mm, I’ll post the weight shortly. The coin was struck in that mysterious period when the Rome mint was striking very few bronzes - this was more than made up for by the beautiful bronzes that were struck throughout the empire, especially in the East. It may be that the bronzes from the Rome mint during the period of low mintage were struck as presentation pieces - the beauty of this coin certainly points to it being struck for a special occasion. Note the unusual left facing bust and the obverse inscription which fully spells out “Caesar” instead of the more common “caes.”</p><p><br /></p><p>I apologize for the poor photo - I will try to put up better ones and include the weight but I wanted to share this as soon as possible. I am aware of only one other example of this type, including identical bust type and left facing portrait - from the same dies, sold by Gorny and Mosch in October of 2009.</p><p><br /></p><p>The bust type is more typical of medallions from the same period. The relief on the bust is extremely high - I have seen similar relief on an As of Julia Donna some years ago. Perhaps one of the Celators at the Rome mint thought that high relief was appropriate for lesser bronzes? The coin is large, although clearly an As.</p><p><br /></p><p>I assume that sestertii were struck of this type but none have survived perhaps because of low mintage - RIC only has this type as an As or Dupondius.&nbsp; I have been searching for affordable imperial bronzes from the period that few bronzes were struck for years - managed to find a very few, of which this is a wonderful example. </p><p><br /></p><p>As to why this type was struck: Based on the bust type this coin would have been struck 206 - 208AD.&nbsp; It would be typical for offerings to be made to Aesculapis during a time of plague and perhaps this coin was struck for that reason - I need to check Dio, Herodian or the Augustan Histories and find out whether there was a plague in Rome at this time. A temple was built at Rome in 293AD dedicated to Aesculapius during a time of plague, but that was of course at least 90 years after this coin was struck.&nbsp; I will do more research and supplement this post.</p><p><br /></p><p>That is all I have on this coin - if anyone knows of other examples or this type in a dupondius please let me know.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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