Watch List notes:

Diocletian. AD 284-305. AV Aureus (20mm, 5.64 g, 6h). Rome mint. Post-reform, struck AD 293-294. DIOCLETIA NVS P F AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / IOVI FVL GE RAT ORI, Jupiter Fulgor (wielder of lightning) advancing left, head right, brandishing thunderbolt in raised right hand; an anguipede giant (Typhon) to right, raising hand to ward off blow; PR. RIC V 146 corr. (rev. legend misspelled); Lukank 15; Depeyrot 5A/1; Calicó 4531 (same dies as illustration); Biaggi 1730 (same dies). Small mark on obverse margin. In NGC encapsulation 6057912-005, graded MS, Strike: 5/5, Surface: 4/5. Rare.

Ex Triton X (8 January 2007), lot 754; (10 May 2005), lot 116; Leu 93 (10 May 2005), lot 116.

The Roman Empire utilized coins as a means of political propaganda more successfully than any other previous empire. The reverse of this piece echoes a scene from Greco-Roman mythology: The battle between Zeus/Jupiter and the monster Typhon, born of the primordial deities Gaia (earth) and Tartarus (underworld). Jupiter is shown about to cast his thunderbolt at the giant, who raises a reptilian hand to ward it off. Diocletian here identifies himself with Jupiter's struggle to bring order out of chaos, something to which the educated classes of the empire could certainly relate.