Watch List notes:

The Roman Empire
Divus Marcus Aurelius. Aureus, Roma after 180, AV 6.96 g.

Description: DIVVS M ANT – ONINVS PIVS Bare head r. Rev. CONSE – CRATIO Four-storey funeral pyre garlanded and adorned with statue; surmounted by Marcus Aurelius in quadriga.

References: C 96
BMC Commodus 26
RIC Commodus 275
Calicó 1834 (this obverse die)
Condition:Very rare. An intriguing issue with a very unusual portrait struck on a full flan. Extremely fine

Note: The long reign of Marcus Aurelius came to an end on March 17, 180 when the aged and infirm emperor died while on campaign fighting the Marcomanni and Quadi along the Danubian frontier at Vindobona (modern Vienna). His death brought to an end the century-long era of the 'Adoptive Emperors', the rulers from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius whose reigns collectively were the culmination of Roman civilization. The key to this most prosperous period in Roman history had been the imperial institution of succession by adoption, whereby the candidate chosen as successor had been carefully selected and then groomed in the responsibilities of government. While Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius all died without natural heirs and thus relied on this institution to provide a successor, Marcus Aurelius had a son, Commodus, whom he planned to succeed him. After Aurelius' death, the Senate obliged Commodus' request to deify his late father, and the mint at Rome soon produced a prodigious commemorative coinage in his honour, including this attractive aureus showing the lofty funeral pyre on which the emperor was cremated