Titus, Rome mint, 80-81 AD.,
Æ Sestertius (34 mm / 23,99 g),
Obv.: IMP T CAES VESP AVG P M TR P P P COS VIII , laureate head of Titus facing left.
Rev.: ANNONA - AVG , (no visible S C) , Annona standing left, holding statue of Aequitas and cornucopiae, at left, modius with grain-ears, at right, behind, stern ("prow").
RIC II (new) 137 ; RIC II (old) 86 (common) ; BMC 153 ; cf. Coh. 15 (in error: with S C) ; CBN 152 .
Although RIC lists it as a prow, the device behind Annona is, as BMCRE correctly calls it, the stern, or poop of a cargo ship. The goose-head stern decoration as well as the sides of the sterncastle are evident (cf. RIC II, pl. IV, 57). For a further treatment, see Lionel Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, 348, and figs. 154, 156. For the missing S C, see RIC 86, note: "The reverse normally omits S. C.; Cohen 14, 15 quotes with S. C., probably in error." ).