As - Vespasian S C, Spes

Vespasian's bronze issues of 74 AD were struck at a moment when the Flavian regime was actively consolidating legitimacy after the civil wars of 69 AD. The S C — senatus consulto — notation on aes coinage was, by this period, largely formulaic, but Vespasian leaned hard into senatorial optics, needing the appearance of restored constitutional order after four emperors in a single year had badly damaged it. RIC II.1 730 is a Rome mint product from a reign notable for administrative efficiency and a deliberate rehabilitation of the bronze coinage, which had degraded badly under Nero and the chaos that followed.