Denarius - Vitellius I O MAX CAPITOLINVS; Jupiter

Reverse

Jupiter hodling thunderbolt in right hand and sceptre in left hand, seated left within distyle temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, with wreath in pediment.

Script: Latin

Lettering: I O MAX CAPITOLINVS

Translation: Iupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus

Comment

The reverse refers to the temple of Jupiter Capitoline on Capitol Hill in Rome, or the Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini temple under its original name.

This type, with complete title of GERMANICVS, seems to be known only by this piece illustrated above and would have been struck by a moving military mint in the Rhine region during the command of the armies of Germania by Vitellius. The scarcity of silver, or at least the difficulty in obtaining it, within moving military mints would explain this type of plated emissions which are to be compared to the Jupiter-Vesta type plated emissions studied by Bocciarelli.

This type would therefore have been issued at the beginning of the year 69, after his acclamation by the armies of Germania (in January 69) and before his election in Rome as Greatest Pontiff in July 69. Having only been proclaimed Augustus by the Senate in April 69, Vitellius had to rely on mints outside Rome before this, in particular in Spain or in Lyons, to strike his coins; an official strike by a moving mint in the Rhine at the beginning of the year 69 is therefore plausible.

Reference : Bocciarelli 17 (this coin illustrated on the page).

Interesting fact