Vespasian. AD 69-79. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.28 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 76. IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG, laureate head left / COS VII, cow right. RIC II 842; Calicó 621. Choice EF.
Ex Jascha Heifetz Collection (Part 2, Superior, 9 December 1989), lot 3188.
This reverse type is very similar to an aureus struck for Augustus (cf. Triton VIII, lot 1088), and may signal the new regime's attempt to foster a nostalgic bridge with the Augustan Age. Harold Mattingly suggests that the cow is a representation of the famous statue of Myron "... which had been placed by Augustus in the Porticus Apollonis and was transferred by Vespasian to the Temple of Peace."
