Denarius - Vespasian SALVS AVG, Salus

Vespasian struck heavily in 73 AD, the year after he and Titus completed their joint censorship — an office neither emperor nor censor had held simultaneously in generations. The SALVS AVG type belongs to a broader program of restoration imagery deployed throughout the Flavian years, when Vespasian was rebuilding both the treasury and public confidence after the civil war of 69 and the devastation of the Jewish revolt. Rome's finances were sufficiently strained that Vespasian famously introduced new taxes and revived lapsed ones, prompting Titus to object until his father held a coin to his nose and asked if the smell offended him.