Unique First Rome Mint Issue of Titus
RIC Plate Coin

CNG 108, Lot: 593. Estimate $1500. Sold for $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Titus. As Caesar, AD 69-79. Æ Sestertius (33mm, 24.78 g, 6h). “Judaea Capta” issue. Rome mint. Struck under Vespasian, AD 71. T CAES VESPASIAN IMP PON TR POT COS, laureate head right / VICT-ORIA AVGVSTI, S C across field, Victory standing right, with left foot on helmet, inscribing a shield set on palm tree. RIC II 355 (this coin, illustrated on pl. 30); Hendin –. VF, brown surfaces, light pitting and some gentle smoothing. Unique.

From the D. C. Kopen Collection. Ex Triton XI (8 January 2008), lot 903; Ponterio 128 (11 November 2003), lot 1325.

Prior to the discovery of the present coin, there had been no known coins of Titus that were struck during his first consulship, which he served in AD 71 following his arrival in Rome from Judaea. The surprising absence of any such coin, given the momentous events of the previous year, was first noted by the renowned eighteenth century numismatist J.-H. Echkel (Doctrina II:6, p. 352 [Vienna, 1828]). It is evident from the numismatic evidence of the Flavian dynasty that the consulships of the emperors were meticulously recorded on the coinage. The presence of COS without an ordinal number on this coin, therefore, indicates that this sestertius was definitely struck during Titus' first consulship. As such, this is the first issue of Titus from the mint at Rome.

See F. Schmidt-Dick, Die Römischen Münzen des Medagliere im Castelvecchio zu Verona (Vienna, 1995), 4903 for the same reverse die, but paired with an obverse with COS II legend.