Watch List notes:

Claudius. AD 41-54. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.70 g, 11h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. Struck AD 41-42. TI CLAVD • CAESAR • AVG • P • M • TR • P, laureate head right / IMPER RECEPT across top of front wall, view of the Castra Praetoria: in front is a wall with two small arched openings below and five battlements on top; above and behind it stands a soldier on guard looking left, holding spear in right hand; aquila to left; behind him is a pediment in which is a crescent, on two pillars, flanked left and right by walls, each with a battlement above and an arch below. RIC I 7; von Kaenel Type 2, 28 (V14/R19) = Lyon 5, 3a (D13/R12) = CNR XIV 76 (this coin, illustrated in von Kaenel and CNR); Calicó 359a (this coin illustrated); BMCRE 5; BN 23; Biaggi 205. EF. A handsome and historically important coin.


Ex C.K. Collection (Triton XIV, 4 January 2011), lot 645; Classical Numismatic Group 60 (22 May 2002), lot 1525; Leu 77 (11 May 2000), lot 526; Leu 2 (25 April 1972), lot 364; Clarence S. Bement Collection (Naville VIII, 25 June 1924), lot 620; G.H. Earle Collection (Chapman, 25 June 1912), lot 511; P. Steiner Collection (Sangiorgi, 11 April 1894), lot 177.

Claudius was the first of many emperors to be raised to that office by the Praetorian Guard. This reverse type, depicting the Castra Praetoria, which lay northeast of Rome outside the Servian Wall, celebrates the event.