Rare Domitian added

I was quite excited to land this one. As a general rule group 4 Domitian denarii for 81 CE are not as rare as those within groups 1-3. This one, however is an exception. There are 3 on OCRE and only one on Acsearch, this one came up for auction about 10 years ago. There is also one in the FAC galleries. There are 0 examples in the CNG archives.

The coin is worn but still has some nice detail. When a rarity shows up I do not worry about condition very much because I do not know when another might appear on the market.

This coin is also an example of a misattribution. The seller marked the coin as RIC 48 a common group 4 denarius.



Please post your coins of Domitian.

Domitian AR Denarius 81 CE (Group 4)
Obv: Laureate head right, IMP CAES DOMITIANUS AUG PM
Rev: Seat draped, above semi-circular frame decorate with three crescents TR P COS VII DES VIII PP
RIC 67
Purchased from Romanorum.com
March 1, 2019

 

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Fantastic addition! Unfortunately, besides a handful of Flavian collectors, everyone else will wonder what all the fuss is about!

 

I wonder what the significance of the reverse is? Any ideas?

 

It's a pulvinar type carried over from Titus' coinage. It's rare having 3 crescents with this legend combination.

 

Hmmm, so an open throne awaiting a deity? I had never heard of a pulvinar before, and had only encountered empty thrones on the Faustina reverses with the peacock standing in front.

Nice coin Orfew btw!

 

Hello Orfew, congrats on your new addition. I would call it scarce rather than rare. When I last worked on Domitian I counted 17 of this variety - and there's probably more because my "counting" only covered sales through 2013.

You should add coryssa to your research list. Here's the coins of Domitian using this overall type. There's probably more but the indexing is semi-automated so it misses a lot when keywords are missing.

http://www.coryssa.org/index.php/su...id/52/page/0/period/roman_emperor/type/Throne

 

Hi @Suarez

Thanks for the link. I found either 4 or 5 of this coin type in those pages. In one case the reverse legend is so worn that it is impossible to tell if it is RIC 67. In some cases the reverses show corn ears on the semi circular frame and not crescents and on others the reverse legend is incorrect for RIC 67.

Thanks very much for the heads up. I will continue to use this site.

 

Nice addition to your Domitian collection!

 

Thanks to all for the kind comments.

 

Finally received this one from Australia. Here is an updated photo.