Beautiful aegis on the statue.
AR Denarius (20mm, 3.48g, 6h). Rome mint, struck 86 (Fifth Issue), bghop.
IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P VI, head laureate right; IMP XIIII COS XII CENS P P P, Capitoline Minerva cult statue with aegis, standing left with spear (M4).
RIC 460 (R), BMC --, RSC --.
Ex The Coin Cottage.
Now this is the first time I had ever seen the Capitoline Minerva cult statue wearing the aegis before and I was a little freaked out by it, wondering if the coin were even genuine, etc. So Paul at The Coin Cottage tested it in his X-ray spectrometer and found this result, Silver = 96.74 %, Copper = 2.22%, Gold = 0.78%, and Lead = 0.26%. What astonished me was the Gold content! Who knew!
