This coin, dissected for science!
AR Denarius (18mm, 2.61g, 5h). Rome mint, struck Sept 18 - Dec 31, 81 (Commemorative Issue, RIC's "Group 1"), ghhpj.
IMP CAESAR DOMITIANVS AVG, head laureate right; TR P COS VII, draped table, over which thatched roof, the Circus Parade float representing the rude spelt-covered cottage of Romulus, Rome's founder.
RIC 3 (R), BMC 2, RSC 554a.
Ex Marc Breitsprecher, ex Harlan Berk, ex Butcher and Ponting test group, ex Jyrki Muona coll.
A quarter of this coin was cut away so that its metallic composition could be tested and published by K. Butcher and M. Ponting, The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage: from the reform of Nero to the reform of Trajan, Cambridge, 2014. This coin = coin M41, pp 140-141, 361 ff.
