Aureus - Vitellius LIBERTAS RESTITVTA, Libertas

Vitellius held power for less than eight months in 69 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors — before being dragged through Rome and executed by Vespasian's forces. His coinage was struck at Rome after his entry into the city in July of that year, which means the entire output of his mint represents a window of roughly four months. The LIBERTAS RESTITVTA type belongs to a propaganda program borrowed almost wholesale from Galba, whose brief reign had leaned heavily on restoration rhetoric to justify displacing Nero.

RIC I#104 is documented from a small number of specimens. Vitellius was systematically damnatus post mortem, and many of his gold pieces were likely melted by the incoming Flavian administration.