Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XX 29-30 Oct 2020
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Nero AV Aureus. Rome, AD 64-65. NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS, laureate head right / IVPPITER CVSTOS, Jupiter seated left, holding thunderbolt and sceptre. RIC 52; BMCRE 67-73; BN 213-21; Biaggi 225-8; Calicó 412. 7.34g, 19mm, 5h.
Near Mint State; magnificent Boscoréale tone.
From the G.T. Collection of the Twelve Caesars;
Ex Neal Archer Collection;
Privately purchased from Spink & Son Ltd, 12 July 1979;
with letter from Spink & Son Ltd indicating the connection to the Boscoréale hoard;
From the Boscoréale hoard of 1895.
The famous Boscoréale hoard, discovered on 13 April 1895, consisted of 109 pieces of gold and silver plate along with a leather bag that contained over 1,000 gold aurei. The hoard had belonged to the owners of a wine-producing villa rustica on the south-eastern slopes of Vesuvius near the modern-day village of Boscoréale, hence its name. The hoard was placed in an empty cistern in the wine cellar of the villa when its owners fled before the eruption of AD 79, and while the villa began to be excavated in 1876 the coins remained undisturbed until 1895. Though gold is considered an 'immortal' metal and is highly unreactive, the intense heat and volcanic compounds the coins were subjected to by the eruption and during their subsequent burial left most with the distinctive colouration that is highly sought after by connoisseurs of Roman aurei.
Near Mint State; magnificent Boscoréale tone.
From the G.T. Collection of the Twelve Caesars;
Ex Neal Archer Collection;
Privately purchased from Spink & Son Ltd, 12 July 1979;
with letter from Spink & Son Ltd indicating the connection to the Boscoréale hoard;
From the Boscoréale hoard of 1895.
The famous Boscoréale hoard, discovered on 13 April 1895, consisted of 109 pieces of gold and silver plate along with a leather bag that contained over 1,000 gold aurei. The hoard had belonged to the owners of a wine-producing villa rustica on the south-eastern slopes of Vesuvius near the modern-day village of Boscoréale, hence its name. The hoard was placed in an empty cistern in the wine cellar of the villa when its owners fled before the eruption of AD 79, and while the villa began to be excavated in 1876 the coins remained undisturbed until 1895. Though gold is considered an 'immortal' metal and is highly unreactive, the intense heat and volcanic compounds the coins were subjected to by the eruption and during their subsequent burial left most with the distinctive colouration that is highly sought after by connoisseurs of Roman aurei.