I would appreciate your input and knowledge, because i have a question about my Vespasian sestertius from the Judaea Capta series. The legend on the obverse ends with COS II, that stands for his second consulship and year 70 A.D. But almost all coins i have seen from this series ends with COS III and year 71 A.D. I dont think it has been tooled but i could be wrong. Could it be a reuse of old dies or was the coin really made in year 70? What do you think?
Here are the obverse legends of Sestertii of Vespasian according to Kraay in chronological order : 70 AD: 1. IMP CAES AVG VESPAS COS II TR POT 2. IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG P M T P P P COS II DES III 71 AD: 3. IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG P M T P P P COS III 4. IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M TR P P P COS III 5. IMP CAES VESPAS AVG P M TR P P P COS III.
Other coins in this series are known to have die engraver errors of COS II instead of COS III. Even though it is a different type and denomination, see the footnote for RIC 279. There is no mention of this error for your coin though (unless I missed something). I can check the addenda later to see if it is in there. Size and weight?