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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Meat man, post: 24750836, member: 135271&quot;]Yes, I like my denarii. And as I&#039;ve posted before, I enjoy collecting interesting <i>as</i> reverse types. But there&#039;s something special about a sestertius. Hefting that big chunk of bronze in the hand gives a real sense of tangible wealth - it must have been a favorite of the ancient Romans. Common sums were counted in sesterces. The sestertius out-lasted the denarius as a common circulation coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sestertii of the first century AD especially are awe-inspiring: nearly a full ounce of rich, golden orichalcum bronze, with exquisitely fine portrait artistry, and often featuring fascinating reverse designs. The finest engravers, it seems, were put to sestertii production. The quality of output was extraordinary; one almost <i>never</i> sees a 1st century sestertius weakly struck, off center, or struck from worn dies.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s not too often I can afford to splurge on these coins, but recently I was able to acquire these two. The first is this fine specimen featuring Titus as Caesar under his father Vespasian:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://content.invisioncic.com/k321387/monthly_2023_10/TitussestertiusPax.jpg.0e72cc9db560dff7d176e0a567697a2e.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://content.invisioncic.com/k321387/monthly_2023_10/TitussestertiusPax.jpg.0e72cc9db560dff7d176e0a567697a2e.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img src="https://content.invisioncic.com/k321387/monthly_2023_10/TitussestertiusPax.jpg.0e72cc9db560dff7d176e0a567697a2e.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Really any early empire sestertius is special, but I&#039;ve always wanted one of Titus. Numismatic portrait artistry under the Flavians reached a very high level of quality, and Titus is of course a very famous figure in ancient history, known for his role in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and for his short reign during which Mt. Vesuvius erupted. His coins are typically the scarcest of all the Flavians, and consequently the most expensive.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin is far from perfect, but I was able to find what I believe is a<a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3020574" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3020574" rel="nofollow"> double-die match</a> on acsearch.info, and so while there may be some smoothing, I don&#039;t think there&#039;s been any tooling going on. The portrait is good and the reverse is even better. The yellowish orichalcum shows a little through the green patina. Thanks to [USER=82616]@David Atherton[/USER] for allowing me to quote from his collection description.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The second sestertius is an earlier one, struck under Claudius in the year 42:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://content.invisioncic.com/k321387/monthly_2023_10/Claudiussestertiuswreath.jpg.459d393f4b2fbd9530e9ba426c452ec5.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://content.invisioncic.com/k321387/monthly_2023_10/Claudiussestertiuswreath.jpg.459d393f4b2fbd9530e9ba426c452ec5.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img src="https://content.invisioncic.com/k321387/monthly_2023_10/Claudiussestertiuswreath.jpg.459d393f4b2fbd9530e9ba426c452ec5.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Sestertii of Claudius are some of the earliest sestertii, at least of the type with which we are most familiar (featuring the imperial portrait.) This coin was struck within a year of Caligula&#039;s assassination, at the beginning of his uncle Claudius&#039; reign. The reverse type is interesting because it proclaims Claudius as PATER PATRIAE &quot;Father of the Nation,&quot; - OB CIVES SERVATOS - &quot;for saving the citizens&quot;. These titles were awarded to Augustus by a grateful (or perhaps cowed) Senate decades earlier, and while an argument could be made for Augustus it&#039;s hard to see how Claudius merited such honors given his previous lack of involvement in politics, and the fact that he was less than a year into his reign! Of course, Caligula had coopted the same honorifics, and maybe the Senate was just happy for the respite.</p><p><br /></p><p>Two things make this particular sestertius special - first, it&#039;s not a product of the Rome mint. Under both Claudius and Nero a branch mint operated, probably somewhere in the Balkans, striking Imperial coinage. The little indentation in the center of both obverse and reverse is the giveaway - this was a part of flan production not employed in Rome. It&#039;s less common than the Rome mint variety, though it is not really rare.</p><p><br /></p><p>The other special thing about this coin is that it comes from the [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER] collection. Curtis Clay is certainly one of the top authorities in ancient numismatics today, and I&#039;m very grateful for the couple times he&#039;s helped me on the forums. Being able to own a coin from his collection is pretty cool IMO and helped tip my decision in favor to purchase.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for looking! Please feel free to comment, and post your own favorite sestertii![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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