Nero, Rome mint, 1st emission(?), 64 AD.,
Æ Sestertius (35-36 mm / 28,73 g), brass (yellow metal alloy, "orichalcum"), axes coin alignment ↑↓ (ca. 180°),
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM P M TR P IMP P P , laureate head of Nero, wearing aegis, facing right (RIC obv. type 49 C).
Rev.: ANNONA AVGVSTI CERES , Annona standing right, hand on hip and holding cornucopiae, and Ceres, seated left with foot on low stool, holding grain ears over modius on garlanded altar, and torch, vis-à -vis; bow and branch on ground before; stern of ship in background (RIC reverse type 2); flan defect at Ceres´body.
RIC I, 159, 98 (common (?), only 2 of this type in online databases) ; WCN 71 ; BMC 86 ; CBN 259 ; Coh. 24 ; http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=126129 ; http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=370621 (Numismatica Ars Classica Auction 52 - 7 October 2009 No.: 967) .
From Nero's experimental first issue of sestertii without S C.
Curtis Clay about a similar type on October 22, 2006:
"MacDowall has shown that these coins without S C are not medallions, but coins meant for circulation. When resuming bronze coinage at Rome after an interval of twenty years, Nero tried two innovations: replacement of the copper As and quadrans with a smaller orichalcum As and quadrans, so that the entire bronze coinage was now orichalcum rather than a mixture of that metal and copper; and elimination of the traditional letters S C, which had appeared on practically all bronze coins of Rome since the moneyers' bronzes of Augustus. The experiment didn't last long, however: Nero soon returned to copper asses and quadrantes, and the use of S C on all bronze coins. This experiment, I believe, took place in 64 AD; I think MacDowall is in error to try to redate it to 63, and RIC I follows him in this error."
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