curtislclay

David, Congratulations! That is indeed a highly interesting Flavian rarity. For over 50 years, I have been on the lookout for Rome-mint bronze coins of Vespasian of the year 70, but without great success, since all of them are very rare! Colin Kraay, whose dissertation was on the bronze coinage of Galba to Titus, gives a useful summary of Vespasian's bronze coinage of 70 in his essay in C.H.V. Sutherland's honorary volume of 1978, pp. 48-50: "During A.D. 70 only two small issues of aes were minted. The first was certainly made before Vespasian's arrival in Rome [c. Oct. 70], and is probably to be dated at the very beginning of the year since it employs in the titulature a sequence IMP CAES(AR) AVG otherwise unknown except on a very small group of undated aurei and denarii [of provincial (Spanish?) mintage]." I have only ever had one such sestertius, acquired from Peus 406, 2012, lot 284; see their picture below. Note COS II in Vespasian's titles, specifying the year 70 AD: IMP CAES AVG VESPAS COS II TR POT. Kraay knew four such sestertius obverse dies, coupled with my FORTVNAE REDVCI reverse type and three other types; my Peus coin brings a fifth obverse die and a new, second, FORTVNAE REDVCI reverse die. "With these sestertii", Kraay continues, "must be associated a small group of undated middle bronzes on grounds of similarity of portraiture and obverse legend." Only two obv. dies were involved, one with portrait laureate and legend IMP CAESAR AVG VESPASIAN, probably meant for dupondii, and the second with portrait bare and the strange variant legend of your coin, IMP CAESAR AVG VIISPAS.SIAN, probably meant for asses. With reverse PROVID S - C, Altar, Kraay, like RIC 10, listed only one specimen, in Oxford ex Ryan Sale, 1952, lot 2740 and ex Niklovits Sale, 1925, lot 655. I think yours is from the same dies on both sides, not just on the obverse. RIC's rarity ranking "R2" rather than "R3" should mean that Carradice and Buttrey knew at least one other specimen too, but if so they unfortunately do not say where it resides. I have had two coins related to this issue of middle bronzes. First an obverse brockage from the VIISPAS.SIAN die, that I acquired from MMAG Basle from their large stock of Niggeler coins that were not fine enough to gain entry into the 1967 Niggeler Roman Sale. I believe Oxford later acquired this coin from my sale of my first collection to Oxford and the BM in 1992. Second an ordinary dupondius of Vespasian in 71 (COS III), struck from the same CONCOR AVG S C, Concordia seated reverse die that had been used the year before for asses struck with the VIISPAS.SIAN obverse die. See RIC pl. 14, 8 (obv. VIISPAS.SIAN) and pl. 26, 263 (obv. COS III). That Vespasian RIC 263 coin is now in my second collection, ex CNG E169, 2007, J.S. Wagner Coll., lot 230 (see their photo below), earlier in the Hall Sale of 1950, known to RIC from Colin Kraay's plaster cast of the Hall coin in Oxford. This die link is important for showing that the VIISPAS.SIAN obverse die must surely have been engraved at the mint of Rome, since it was coupled with the same reverse die as a quite standard Rome-mint dupondius of 71. Returning to Kraay: "Vespasian's second aes issue of A.D. 70 was minted late in the year, for Vespasian is now pontifex maximus, a title probably assumed only after his arrival in Rome, and his third consulship is envisaged. On the single die made for sestertii, his titulature is now recorded in the sequence which had become orthodox in the course of the year: IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG P M T P P P COS II DES III. This obverse die was combined with five reverse dies. Similarly dated is a small issue of Asses produced from a single obverse die." My only coin from this second bronze issue of 70: a sestertius with reverse FORTVNAE REDVCI S - C, Fortuna standing, of which I do not have a photo, but which is from the same dies, though a little less fine, than the Naville coin illustrated below from CoinArchives Pro. Kraay's summary: "Up to the end of A.D. 70 the aes coinage had thus clearly been minted on a very modest scale, for the examples listed above include all that could be located in a prolonged and thorough, though certainly not exhaustive, search."

Maridvnvm, Nice find! My new collection includes two denarii of that type, one of which is from the same rev. die as yours.