Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 1262. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

VITELLIUS. 69 AD. AR Denarius (3.32 gm). Bare head right / Concordia seated left, holding patera and cornucopiae. RIC I 73 var. (laureate); RSC 20 var. (same). VF. Unpublished variety. ($750)

This interesting coin probably belongs to a small, intermediate issue after RIC group (i) but before group (ii), when the laureate crown was added to the portrait and the title GERMANICUS was shortened. R.A.G. Carson noted a similar coin with the standard tripod reverse in the British Museum (see RIC I pg. 273). Another example, with the standard Jupiter reverse, appeared in CNG 60 (lot 1559). Bare-head portraits may well exist with a substantial number of Vitellius' group (ii) types.