★ An excellent eastern portrait of Domitian ★

Domitian, as Caesar, 69-81. Sestertius (Orichalcum, 35 mm, 26.29 g, 7 h), uncertain mint in Thrace (?), 80-81. CAES DIVI AVG VESP F DOMITIANVS COS VII Laureate head of Domitian to right. Rev. PAX AVGVST / S - C Pax standing front, head to left, holding olive branch in her right hand and cornucopiae in her left. BMC 315 note and pl. 58, 5. Cohen 343. RIC 507. RPC II 504. A bold example with a fine green patina and an excellent portrait. Somewhat smoothed and with minor breaks in patina on the edge, otherwise, extremely fine.

From a European collection, formed before 2005.

The mysterious Flavian mint in the East producing Latin bronze coinage for Titus Augustus and Domitian Caesar can be distinguished from the output of Rome by the flatter fabric, larger and heavily seriffed lettering, and its monumental, muscular portraits. Exactly where this unusual coinage was produced is still unclear, but find evidence points towards a mint somewhere in Thrace or Bithynia. The present sestertius is a particularly impressive example from this series, bearing an exceptionally sharp and lifelike portrait of Domitian on the obverse and a beautifully detailed figure of Pax on the reverse.