Vespasian's bronze coinage of 73 AD was struck at a moment when the dynasty was still actively consolidating its legitimacy following the chaos of 69 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors. The SC senatorial authorization mark carried real political weight under the Flavians, a deliberate gesture toward the senatorial class whose cooperation Vespasian needed after Nero's excesses had poisoned the relationship between emperor and senate.
RIC II.1 593 is a Rome mint issue from the middle of Vespasian's reign, by which point the treasury was being rebuilt substantially on the proceeds of the Judaean war and new taxation including the infamous fiscus Judaicus, a head tax levied on Jews throughout the empire.
Vespasian's bronze coinage of 73 AD was struck at a moment when the dynasty was still actively consolidating its legitimacy following the chaos of 69 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors. The SC senatorial authorization mark carried real political weight under the Flavians, a deliberate gesture toward the senatorial class whose cooperation Vespasian needed after Nero's excesses had poisoned the relationship between emperor and senate.
RIC II.1 593 is a Rome mint issue from the middle of Vespasian's reign, by which point the treasury was being rebuilt substantially on the proceeds of the Judaean war and new taxation including the infamous fiscus Judaicus, a head tax levied on Jews throughout the empire.