Vespasian augustus, 69 – 79.
Aureus 75, AV 7.31 g. IMP CAESAR – VESPASIANVS AVG Laureate head r. Rev. PAX – AVGVST Pax seated l., holding branch in r. hand and sceptre in l. C 319. BMC 280. RIC 770. CBN 251. Calicó 662 (this coin illustrated). A bold portrait of excellent style struck in high relief. Virtually as struck and almost Fdc Ex NFA-Leu 16 May 1984, Garrett part 1, 759 and Vinchon 20 November 1992, 101 sales. Privately purchased by T. Harrison Garrett from the Chapman brothers on 22 November 1884.

Graded Ch AU* Strike 5/5 Surface 4/5, NGC certification number 6030744-001.

Both historians and citizens openly criticised Vespasian - the son of a man who made a fortune as a tax collector in Asia, and later as a banker in Helvetia - for his stinginess, but this proved to be an essential quality for an emperor in his troubled times. Suetonius (Vesp 16.3) reports that Vespasian claimed he needed 400 million aurei (10 billion denarii) to "...put the country back on its feet again". As a result of his close attention to finance, Vespasian struck aurei in large quantities, and unlike most of his predecessors, he employed a wide variety of reverse types. For generations researchers have recognised that many of Vespasian's reverse types recall types from earlier reigns, most especially those from the age of Augustus. Attempts have been made to connect his 'Augustan' types with the centenaries of the Battle of Actium (ending in 70) and the 'foundation' of the empire (ending in 74), but all seem to have failed, as the relevant types are strewn throughout Vespasian's ten-year reign. It is perhaps better to view his recycling of types as a political strategy favoured by Vespasian and Titus, but subsequently abandoned by Domitian.