Dupondius - Domitian S C

Issued in the final year of Domitian's reign, these coins belong to a concentrated burst of output preceding his assassination in September 96 AD — a conspiracy involving members of his own household, including his wife Domitia. The Senate's subsequent condemnation of his memory (damnatio memoriae) resulted in the systematic destruction of his image across the empire, which is why so many surviving Domitian bronzes show deliberate defacement of the portrait.

RIC II.1 802 dates to the fifteenth imperatorial acclamation, placing production squarely in that last chaotic year.