VESPASIAN BRONZE SESTERTIUS – JUDAEA CAPTA ISSUE EX PRINCE WALDECK COLLECTION – VF FINE STYLE NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN OF THE 12 CAESARS (Inv. 21001)

$8,500.00

21001. ROMAN EMPIRE. VESPASIAN, AD 69–79
Bronze Sestertius, 27.92 g, 33 mm. Issue of Rome, AD 71.
Obv. IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG PM TR P P P COS III, laureate bust of Vespasian right. Rev. IVDAEA CAPTA, emperor standing right, holding spear and sword, mourning Judaea under date palm at right, SC in exergue.
RIC II.1, 167.
Ex Prince Christian August of Waldeck and Pyrmont Collection (1744–1798), Basel Munzhandlung, 3/4/1935, lot 237.
NGC graded VF, Strike 4/5, Surface 2/5, FINE STYLE, “scratches,” “die shift.”

Christian August, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, was the son of Prince Karl August and his wife, Christiane Henriette of Palatinate–Zweibrücken–Birkenfeld. His parents were both fascinated by the classical past and together formed a collection of coins and antiquities at Castle Waldeck. The interests of his parents were passed on to their son who expanded the family collection with additional objects and coins. One can imagine this sestertius having a special interest for Christian August, who, like Vespasian, was a nobleman with a military career. Early in the War of the First Coalition (1792–1797), Christian August had commanded Austrian elements of the Austro–Prussian Army against the French Revolutionaries in the Rhineland and after his successes briefly took command of the entire Austrian Army on the Rhine in 1794 before promotion to other important military positions in the Austrian Netherlands and Bohemia. He died in 1797, shortly after accepting an invitation to take command of the Army of Portugal.