HADRIAN SILVER CISTOPHORUS – EPHESUS ISSUE OVERSTRUCK ON A COUNTERMARKED CISTOPHORUS – VF NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN (Inv. 20916)

$1,500.00

20916. ROMAN EMPIRE. HADRIAN, 117–138 AD.
Silver Cistophorus, 10.14 g, 28 mm. Issue of Ephesus, AD 129-130.
Obv. HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS P P, bare head of Hadrian right. Rev. COS III, Aesculapius, god of medicine, draped and standing left, holding staff with snake.
Metcalf, The Cistophori of Hadrian, series 20, nos. 89-98; RPC III 1348.
NGC VF, Strike 3/5, Surface 3/5, “overstruck,” “countermark: on undertype.”

The present coin is especially remarkable because it was not only renewed as legal tender by Hadrian’s restrike program, but the remains of a rectangular countermark with the legend IMP VES AVG show that it had been revalidated decades earlier by Vespasian (AD 69–79). Although the host coin (most likely a cistophorus of Marc Antony or Claudius), probably struck at Ephesus, is often thought to have been countermarked by the supporters of Vespasian when he claimed the imperial title on July 1, 69, the fact that it was still in Asia Minor for overstriking by Hadrian in the early second century suggests that the countermarking may have been part of a financial policy undertaken by Vespasian in Asia Minor after he was firmly ensconced as emperor. Such overstruck countermarked pieces are very rare, with only a handful in market records including a similar piece once in the Dr. Jay Galst collection, for which see CNG 70, 9/21/2005, lot 988.