Domitian, as Caesar, 69-81. Sestertius (Orichalcum, 34 mm, 26.58 g, 7 h), uncertain mint in the East (in Thrace or Bithynia?), 80-81. CAES DIVI AVG VESP F DOMITIANVS COS VII Laureate head of Domitian to right.
Rev. PAX AVGVSTI / S - C Pax standing front, head to left, holding olive branch in her right hand and cornucopiae in her left. BMC pl. 58, 5. Cohen -. RIC 507. RPC II 504. An exceptional, very sharply struck piece with an absolutely wonderful portrait. Minor smoothing
, otherwise, good extremely fine.
Ex Leu 7, 24-25 October 2020, 1573 and previously from a Bavarian collection of Roman Imperial bronze coins, formed in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The mysterious Flavian mint in the East, producing Latin bronze coinage for Titus Augustus and Domitian Caesar, can be differentiated from the output of Rome by its flatter fabric, large and heavily serifed lettering, and monumental, muscular portraits. Exactly where this unusual coinage was produced is still unclear, but find evidence points towards a mint somewhere in Thrace or Bithynia. The present sestertius is a particularly impressive example from this series, bearing an exceptionally sharp and lifelike portrait of Domitian on the obverse and a beautifully detailed figure of Pax on the reverse.
