RoughRomanMemes

Expanded from the abbreviations, the front says IMPERATOR CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVGVSTVS, PONTIFEX MAXIMVS, TRIBVNICIA POTESTAS, PATER PATRIAE, CONSVL III (check links for Wikipedia pages explaining each function/title). In English it's something like "Emperor Caesar Vespasian Augustus, Head Pontiff, Tribunicial Power, Father of the Fatherland, Three Times Consul".

The "Three Times Consul" thing shows this coin was issued in the year 71 of the common era. Vespasian had nine consulships; the 2nd to 4th were sequential, so if the coin was issued a bit before or after, the number after "COS" would change.

A lot of those existed already in Republican times, but temporary, and assigned to different people, in a system where one keeps the power of another in check. So in a certain sense that alphabet soup shows how the republic died — gradual erosion of the separation of powers.

Explanation: In an era before mass communication or mass literacy, with the Roman Empire ruling over innumerable peoples with their own customs and cultural outlooks, coinage and symbolism were a major conduit of Imperial propaganda. After all, who doesn't use money? For that reason, after major events, Romans would mint new coins to celebrate achievements and spread awareness of the GLORY of ROME. Here is the coinage minted by the Emperor Vespasian after the First Jewish-Roman War.

Traditional Roman portraiture, especially republican portraiture, highly valued a 'warts and all' vision of subjects over idealism, even for the highest ranked officials, so Emperor Vespasian there is depicted with all of his chonky glory. If you meet the Emperor on the street, it would be nice to at least recognize the man, not some abstract idea of his office!

On the face, there is the long list of abbreviated imperial titles which granted the Emperor his (theoretical) legal right to do basically whatever he wanted. On the reverse is written "IVDEA CAPTA" - "Judea conquered" and "SC" - "[issued by] Decree of the Senate"