Unpublished Variety?

373, Lot: 369. Estimate $150. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Vespasian. AD 69-79. AR Denarius (18mm, 2.26 g, 6h). Ephesus mint(?). Struck AD 69-70. IMP CAES VESPAS AVG, laureate head right / CONCRDIA (sic) AV[G], Concordia (or Ceres?) seated left, holding grain ears, poppy, and a small genius with her extended right hand, and cradling a cornucopia with her left arm from which emerges a small genius; both genii are holding a wreath above Concordia’s head. RIC II 1394 var. (rev. legend and without genii holding wreath); RPC II 804 var. (same); RSC 65a var. (same). VF, toned, porous, a few marks.

From the J. Eric Engstrom Collection.

An interesting and possibly unpublished variety with the error in the reverse legend, and the two genii holding a wreath above Concordia’s head. Perhaps a local imitation of an Ephesus mint denarius.