Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 888. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

VESPASIAN. 69-79 AD. AV Quinarius (3.72 gm). Judaea Capta issue. Rome mint. Struck circa 70 AD. IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG COS II, laureate head right / VICTORIA AVGVST, Victory advancing right, holding palm and wreath. RIC II -; BMCRE -; BN -; Hunter -; Cohen -; cf. Triton IV (5 December 2000), lot 496 (IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG) (same reverse die). EF, light scuff on edge at point of bust. A unique and apparently unpublished variety of a quinarius known by only one other example. [See color enlargement on plate 17] ($5000)

Ex McLendon Collection (Christie's New York, 12 June 1993), lot 108; Leu 25 (23 April 1980), lot 271.

Several examples of gold quinarii have been recorded for Vespasian with the obverse legend IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG, and a parallel can be found in the silver quinarii of the same reverse type with the obverse legend containing his fourth and fifth consular dates (73 and 74 AD, respectively). Because of the similar reverse style and the lack of additional appellations in the obverse legend, Mattingly thus relegated the gold quinarii to the general period after these dated issues, 75-79 AD. Our coin is the first of this type to include COS in the obverse legend and the bar above the consular number argues for II, thus dating the coin to 70 AD. As the reverse of this coin can be die-linked to the gold quinarii attributed to 75-79 AD, these "later" issues must now be dated back to 70 AD as well. This dating combined with a victory reverse type would likely place this issue as a commemorative for the recent victory in the Jewish War. Moreover, the later, consular-dated silver quinarii appear to be yearly commemoratives, which also speaks for the magnitude of the event that the Victory type was issued for. Such an unusual denomination for this period implies that the gold quinarii would have been used in the festal distributions at the time.