CNG 90, Lot: 1508. Estimate $750. Sold for $1605. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Titus. AD 79-81. AR Cistophorus (24mm, 10.93 g, 6h). Ephesus mint (or Rome for circulation in Asia). Struck AD 80-81. Laureate head right / Aquila between two signa. RIC II 516; RPC 861; RSC 398. VF, toned. Well centered and struck for issue.

Ex Athena Fund (Sotheby’s Zurich, 27 October 1993), lot 1499.

While no decisive evidence exists for the location of the mint of the cistophori during the reigns of Vespasian through Trajan, the style, legends, and, in particular, the consistent die axis point to Rome, suggesting that these coins were minted in the capital and then sent to Asia for local use.