Watch List notes:

THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Titus, 79 – 81

Divus Titus. Aureus circa 112-113, AV 7.25 g. IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M Laureate head l. Rev. IMP CAES TRAIAN AVG GER DAC P P REST Trophy. C –. BMC –. Mattingly, NC 1926, pl. XIII, 14 var. (head r.). RIC Trajan 832. Komnik 69.0. Woytek 868 (these dies).
An exceedingly rare variety, only the seventh specimen known, of an extremely rare
type commemorating the Roman victory in Judaea. In exceptional condition
for this very difficult issue. An handsome portrait struck on a very broad
flan and about extremely fine


Trajan's restoration coins have been appreciated as much for their rarity and historical interest as for the proof they offer that the Romans occasionally studied their coins as objects of independent interest. As a series, these coins represent a nostalgic and truly numismatic indulgence on the part of the emperor and his officials at the Rome mint.
The traditional view put forth by Mattingly, Sydenham, Sutherland, Hill, Carson and others placed the series in 107 (or soon afterward) in relation to the mass-withdrawal of obsolete coins from circulation that is described by Dio Cassius (lxviii.15). However, Kent was less than convinced when in 1990 he wrote that the series "...has been associated with a supposed recall of old coinage in 107, but the connection is far from clear." In recent years Trajan's coinage has undergone a particularly intensive study, and researchers, including Komnick, Beckmann and Woytek, prefer to date the restorations to c.112/3.
The restored types range from denarii of the early years of Republic down to aurei of Trajan's predecessor, Nerva, and thus cover a period of about three centuries. Trajan issued the Republican restorations as denarii, and the imperial types as aurei, with some overlapping in the issues of the imperatorial period. Most are relatively faithful copies of known coin types, whereas some are inexplicably modified from the originals and others are outright inventions.
Among the seven emperors honoured with restorations were Vespasian and his eldest son Titus. Vespasian was accorded one reverse type for his lifetime-issue restorations and two for his divus issues; Titus received one type each for his lifetime and divus coinages. In both cases their lifetime issues have trophies as a reverse type and each also has a divus issue showing a winged thunderbolt on a draped throne.
The selection of a trophy of arms and armour for their lifetime issues clearly shows that in Trajan's era the first two Flavian emperors were remembered most fondly for their leading roles in the Roman victory in the Jewish War of 66-70. It is peculiar, however, that Vespasian's issue shows a bound Jewish captive crouching at the base of the trophy (for that composition is clearly derived from Titus' aurei and denarii of 79) and that Titus' show merely the trophy (for this must have been taken from his father's rare DE IVDAEIS aurei of 71-72 or – even more likely – it was a modified version of Titus' aforementioned issues of 79).