Watch List notes:

The Roman Empire
Trajan, 98 – 117

Divus Iulius. Aureus 112-113 AD, restoration issue under Trajan, 98-117 AD, AV 7.10 g. DIVVS – IVLIVS Laureate head of Caesar r. Rev. IMP·CAES·TRAIAN·AVG·GER·DAC·P·P·REST Nemesis, winged, walking r., holding caduceus in l. hand and drawing fold of drapery with r.; in lower r. field, serpent. C 55. BMC 689. RIC 815. Calicó 48 (this obverse die). Komnick pl. 26, 54. Woytek 852.1 (this coin cited).
Extremely rare and an issue of great historical interest. An intriguing portrait
of the deceased dictator struck in high relief, minor marks,
otherwise good very fine


Ex Glendining's 20 February 1951, Ryan IV, 1573; Santamaria 6 June 1956, Distinto Raccogliatore Milanese, 27; Lanz 52, 1990, 365 and NAC 73, 2013, Student and his Mentor part II, 277 sales.
This is a rare issue to find and when it does appear it is usually in similar grade to the present specimen. This coin is a great alternative to someone building a set of the twelve Caesars in gold who wants a large portrait of Julius Caesar. MSG.
Two main portrait types for Julius Caesar appear to have been introduced around the time of his murder in 44 B.C. The standard portrait, the 'Chiaramonti type', was the model used for most Caesar issues of the Imperatorial age, whereas the 'Tusculum type' was used only for the first Caesar portrait coins, denarii of M. Mettius, and for aurei of the Trajanic restoration series. The 'Tusculum type,' as described by Johansen in his study of the portraiture of Julius Caesar (Ancient Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum: Volume 1, pp. 17-40), is named after a marble portrait in the Museo di Antichità in Turin that was excavated from the Forum in 1825 by Lucien Bonaparte. It is recognisable by the diagnostic 'saddle' on the top of Caesar's head created by the prolonged back of his cranium. Trajan issued two aurei in his restoration series for Caesar. One, represented here, shows on its obverse Caesar wearing a wreath and surrounded by the inscription DIVVS IVLIVS; its reverse depicts Pax-Nemesis in the manner of the aurei and denarii of Claudius inscribed PACI AVGVSTAE. The other, which bears on its obverse the inscription C IVLIVS CAES IMP COS III and shows Caesar bare-headed, is paired with a reverse type that is a partial invention likely derived from Augustan aurei and denarii. In both cases, however, the inspiration may have been coinage of the Flavians, who recycled those earlier designs.