Watch List notes:

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

Octavianus with L. Mussidius T.F. Longus. Aureus circa 42 BC, AV 8.07 g. C·CAESAR·III·VIR·R·P·C Bare head of Octavian r. Rev. L·MVSSIDIVS·T·F·LONGVS·IIII·VIR·A·P·F· Mars, wearing Corinthian helmet, standing r., holding sword in l. hand and spear in r. and resting l. foot on shield. Babelon Mussidia 15 and Julia 85. C 468. Bahrfeldt 52a and pl. VI, 24 (these dies). Sydenham 1098. T.V. Buttrey "The Triumviral Portrait Gold of the Quattuoviri Monetales of 42 B.C.", NNM 137, 1956, 52.11; pl. IX (this coin). Sear Imperators 152a. Calicó 141 (these dies). RBW –. Crawford 494/9a.
Extremely rare, only very few specimens known of which only two are in private hands.
A very attractive portrait perfectly centered on a large flan,
about extremely fine / good very fine


Ex Sotheby's 10 November 1972, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 12; Sotheby's 19-20 June, 1991, Nelson Bunker Hunt, 664 and NAC 73, 2013, Student and his Mentor part II, 225 sales. From the collection of Sheikh Saoud Al Thani.
The year 42 B.C. was extraordinarily rich in coinage. The obvious explanation is that the Caesareans were confiscating vast amounts of property in their proscriptions, which they in turn were using to prepare for the upcoming war against Brutus and Cassius. Crawford attributes more than ninety different coinages to 42 B.C., struck by four moneyers and eight commanders operating in Africa, the East, Greece, Italy and Sicily. This aureus was struck by Lucius Mussidius Longus, one of the four moneyers of 42 B.C. Its reverse depicts Mars, nude except for his Corinthian helmet, holding a spear and sword, and placing his foot on a fallen shield, which must refer to the preparations being made by the triumvirs' desire to wage war on Brutus and Cassius. This reverse is known from only three dies, which Mussidius used interchangeably with portrait dies of Octavian, Antony and Lepidus.