Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XX 29-30 Oct 2020
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Augustus AR Denarius. Uncertain Spanish mint (Colonia Caesaraugusta?), 19-18 BC. CAESAR AVGVSTVS, laureate head to right / S•P•Q•R, Victory flying to right, holding wreath over uninscribed shield with small central boss, column behind. RIC -, cf. 46a (shield inscribed CL V); BMCRE -; RSC -; BN -, cf. 1122; FFC 204 (this coin). 3.83g, 20mm, 4h.
Extremely Fine; beautiful old cabinet tone. Exceedingly Rare; one of only two to appear at auction in 20 years, and the finest by far.
This coin published in Fernández, Fernández & Calicó, Catálogo Monográfico de los Denarios de la República Romana (Madrid, 2002);
From the Long Valley River Collection;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 18, 29 March 2000, lot 383;
Ex V. J. E. Ryan Collection Part V, Glendining & Co. Ltd, 02 April 1952, lot 2006;
Ex Clarence S. Bement Collection, Naville & Cie, 25-28 June 1924, lot 512.
This stunning type showcases some of the key elements of the new Augustan imagery which became frequent motifs on all subsequent imperial coinage. The circular shield (inscribed CL V on similar types) is the clipeus virtutis, an honorific golden shield presented by the Senate to Augustus sometime before 27 BC in commemoration of his virtue, piety, justice and clemency. It was housed in the curia building itself, reportedly at the feet of the Tarentine statue of Victory, and hence the two elements were often seen together as well as being closely associated with the Senate. At the time that this coin was minted, much of the new imperial imagery introduced on the imperial coinage had already become well-established, in no small part down to Augustus himself who was evidently a shrewd accumulator of both symbols and titles as part of a "creation of a whole new method of visual communication" befitting the 'New Rome' (Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, 1988).
Extremely Fine; beautiful old cabinet tone. Exceedingly Rare; one of only two to appear at auction in 20 years, and the finest by far.
This coin published in Fernández, Fernández & Calicó, Catálogo Monográfico de los Denarios de la República Romana (Madrid, 2002);
From the Long Valley River Collection;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 18, 29 March 2000, lot 383;
Ex V. J. E. Ryan Collection Part V, Glendining & Co. Ltd, 02 April 1952, lot 2006;
Ex Clarence S. Bement Collection, Naville & Cie, 25-28 June 1924, lot 512.
This stunning type showcases some of the key elements of the new Augustan imagery which became frequent motifs on all subsequent imperial coinage. The circular shield (inscribed CL V on similar types) is the clipeus virtutis, an honorific golden shield presented by the Senate to Augustus sometime before 27 BC in commemoration of his virtue, piety, justice and clemency. It was housed in the curia building itself, reportedly at the feet of the Tarentine statue of Victory, and hence the two elements were often seen together as well as being closely associated with the Senate. At the time that this coin was minted, much of the new imperial imagery introduced on the imperial coinage had already become well-established, in no small part down to Augustus himself who was evidently a shrewd accumulator of both symbols and titles as part of a "creation of a whole new method of visual communication" befitting the 'New Rome' (Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, 1988).