TYPE Roman Empire, Domitian (81-96 AD), brass as, struck 85 AD. DESCRIPTION . Obv: Laureate head to right, legend IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM COS XI CENS POT PP Rev: Ceres with grain ears and long staff, Latin legend FIDEI PVBLICAE / S C REFERENCE: cf. SR 907 (dupondius) GRADING: F / AF, dark patina, scarce denomination for type ORDER INFO: R2101, $40 In one of the early signs that marked his shift from being primarily viewed as a good administrator and general to a paranoid tyrant, in 85 AD Domitian took the unprecedented step of proclaiming himself Censor in perpetuity. The present coin was struck that year - the first time the office appears among his titles - with even the reverse ominously alluding to some of the expected norms of conduct ("the faithfulness of officials"). The emperor liberally exercised prerogatives of this office, from burning Vestal Virgins to purging senators, allegedly to exude a moral awakening, all the while practicing the opposite personally. His excesses and hypocrisy finally caught up with him, as his life violently ended in 96 AD, his image long tarnished by then, and his memory officially damned thence.