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Lot
# 489 - Auction is closed.Estimate: US$5000
/ Price Realized: US$5760
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Vespasian. Sestertius
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Vespasian. 69-79 AD. Sestertius, 27.57gg. (6h). Rome, 71 AD. Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG P M T P P P COS III Bust laureate, draped right. Rx: PAX - AVGVSTI S - C Pax standing left holding branch and cornucopia. RIC 98 (R2). Bust variety of BM 772, pl. 34.3. Struck on a broad flan, this small flawless portrait of Vespasian is surrounded by an extremely long legend. The quality of this coin can be seen by the two exceptional collectors who owned it. Choice EF.
Ex Glendining, 2 April 1952, V.J.E. Ryan Coll., Part 5, lot 2351
Ex Naville XI, 18-20 June 1925, H.C. Levis Coll., lot 445.
Colin Kraay in his unpublished die catalogue of Vespasian's sestertii of 70-71 AD, no. 97, cited for this die combination our coin only, from the Ryan and Levis collections. This coin is part of Vespasian's earliest sestertius issue of 71 AD, with CAESAR VESPASIANVS...COS III in the obverse legend, which is characterized by a large and interesting variety of imperial portraits, bust types, and reverse types, for example the unusual laureate, draped bust on our coin, rather than the normal head laureate right. This draped bust type may be seen from the back as on our coin, or seen from the side as on BMC pl. 34.3, a distinction that is overlooked in the new RIC.
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