Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIII 23 March 2017
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Nero AV Aureus. Rome, AD 59-60. NERO CAESAR AVG IMP, youthful bare head right / PONTIF MAX TR P VI COS IIII P P around oak wreath enclosing EX S C. RIC 19; BMC 21; Calicó 426. 7.75g, 19mm, 2h.
Good Very Fine. Minor scrape to obv. Rare.
On his accession at the death of Claudius in AD 54, the seventeen year old Nero became the youngest Emperor to have worn the laurel wreath. Heavily influenced during his first year on the throne by his mother Agrippina, he gradually resisted her interventions in favour of the advice given by his tutor Seneca and the Praetorian Prefect Burrus, eventually having her murdered in 59.
When this aureus was struck in 60 Nero was fully under the power of Seneca and Burrus, a fact which RIC suggests is evidenced on the coinage by the single type employed to strike gold and silver alike. Coins from this issue such as the present piece featured simply Nero's name and titles, with the corona civica and formula EX S C (by decree of the Senate), and continued to link the Emperor back through the Julio-Claudian line to Augustus.
Issues of gold and silver in the name of Nero from before 64 are generally rare, and this is thought to be due to the recall and melting of as much as possible of this early coinage. The melted coins were replaced by new types on reduced weight standards, a policy enacted in order to defray the huge costs required by the rebuilding of Rome, which included the construction of Nero's infamous Domus Aurea.
Good Very Fine. Minor scrape to obv. Rare.
On his accession at the death of Claudius in AD 54, the seventeen year old Nero became the youngest Emperor to have worn the laurel wreath. Heavily influenced during his first year on the throne by his mother Agrippina, he gradually resisted her interventions in favour of the advice given by his tutor Seneca and the Praetorian Prefect Burrus, eventually having her murdered in 59.
When this aureus was struck in 60 Nero was fully under the power of Seneca and Burrus, a fact which RIC suggests is evidenced on the coinage by the single type employed to strike gold and silver alike. Coins from this issue such as the present piece featured simply Nero's name and titles, with the corona civica and formula EX S C (by decree of the Senate), and continued to link the Emperor back through the Julio-Claudian line to Augustus.
Issues of gold and silver in the name of Nero from before 64 are generally rare, and this is thought to be due to the recall and melting of as much as possible of this early coinage. The melted coins were replaced by new types on reduced weight standards, a policy enacted in order to defray the huge costs required by the rebuilding of Rome, which included the construction of Nero's infamous Domus Aurea.