Ancient coin folks... help! Titus As... or Vespasian Dupondius?

lordmarcovan

Got this 27-28 mm Roman AE from our good Dead King Aethelred in a face-to-face swap this summer. (He may be a Yeti these days, and I am sure widowerhood has taken its toll on him, but he looked good.)

I was primarily interested because he attributed as an as of Titus, struck AD 80, SR-2547v. And I need Titus for my burgeoning 12 Caesars set.

Thing is, though, I can't find that Sear number on Wildwinds. And I couldn't find any Titus as with the FIDES PVBLICA reverse.

I did, however, find a few very similar pieces described under Vespasian, Titus' father. I know they both used the name VESPASIAN (-VS) in their obverse legends (Titus usually adding a "T" in front of it), but you can't make that out on this coin. Confusing one for the other is a common mistake, I've been told (by none other than my first ancient coin mentor, from whom I got this very coin!) Could HE have mistaken the attribution? ARE there Titus AEs with this FIDES reverse? Or is it, as I am beginning to suspect, a Vespasian dupondius instead?

Another thing that makes me think it might be a dupondius instead of an as is that the dupondii were struck in brassy orichalcum, while the as was in a more reddish copper or bronze, right? And this piece has a brassy look beneath the patina.

And if it is, well... whichever it is... what's the approximate value? Michael has offered to trade back if I don't want it, but I am fine with keeping the coin either way. Yes, it has a little microporosity, but hey, it's a first-century Roman coin. I can live with a little bit of porosity. But I will only keep it for my set if it happens to be Titus. I have Vespasian already (a "Judaea Capta" denarius), so if this is Vespasian, I will likely sell it.

I got this in trade for a couple of pieces in which I had about $130-ish invested, I guess. I see Michael had a three-letter code on the flip, so it must be worth low three figures. But how much, ballpark? And... WHAT IS IT???

Sapyx

Sear #2547 is indeed a Titus FIDES PVBLICA coin, a copper as, but the reverse on that coin is "clasped hands", not "Fides standing" and the obverse legend is IMP T CAES VESP AVG PM TRP COS VIII. I assume Sear #2547 looks not too dissimilar to Sear #2474, Titus as Caesar, which is on Wildwinds.

There is, however, a Vespasian brass dupondius with obverse legend IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG COS VIII PP (Sear #2347), reverse FIDES PVBLICA Fides standing, which your coin seems to be a perfect match for. Compare with these Wildwinds examples.

Price-wise, there's not too much difference; the Titus as lists at $96 in Fine, while the Vespasian dupondius lists at $80 in Fine in the 2000 edition.

Sorry, it's not a Titus.

lordmarcovan

Thank you. That was pretty much the conclusion I came to, but wanted to bounce it off some other folks (especially you, Sapyx). I appreciate it.

Not a Titus, eh? Well, that isn't the end of the world. It likely would have done short-term duty in my set anyway, as what I want is a Titus denarius with the capricorn and globe reverse, like I had before in my old Roman Imperial collection. (You didn't end up with that one, did you? How about my old Caligula? Of the eight coins I have towards my new 12 Caesars set, three are currently pieces from my old collection that I've bought back from the folks I sold 'em to in 2008.)

lordmarcovan

Hey, what year does COS VIII for Vespasian correspond to, if anyone knows that off the top of their heads?

But I suppose I can look that up somewhere.

Sapyx

<< <i>Hey, what year does COS VIII for Vespasian correspond to, if anyone knows that off the top of their heads?

But I suppose I can look that up somewhere. >>


Or you can look it up on the Wildwinds page I linked to earlier, where it says "77-78".

lordmarcovan