Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXV 22-23 Sep 2022
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Galba AV Aureus. Rome, July - August AD 68. IMP SER GALBA CAESAR AVG, laureate head to right / SALVS GEN HVMANI, draped female figure (Salus?) advancing to left with foot on globe, sacrificing from patera over lit altar and holding rudder. RIC I 206; C. 237; BMCRE 38; Calicó 504. 7.21g, 19mm, 6h.
NGC Graded VF 5/5 - 3/5, graffito. Extremely Rare.
Ex Kingsdown Collection, Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction XXII, 7 October 2021, lot 691 (hammer: GBP 17,000).
Galba AV Aureus. Rome, July - August AD 68. IMP SER GALBA CAESAR AVG, laureate head to right / SALVS GEN HVMANI, draped female figure (Salus?) advancing to left with right foot on globe, sacrificing from patera over lit altar and holding rudder. RIC I 206; C. 237; BMCRE 38; Calicó 504. 7.21g, 19mm, 6h.
NGC Graded VF 5/5 - 3/5, graffito. Extremely Rare.
From the inventory of a US dealer;
Ex Kingsdown Collection, Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction XXII, 7 October 2021, lot 691 (hammer: £17,000).
Whilst Galba was proconsul of Nearer Spain, he became an ally of Vindex, the governor of Gaul, in his revolt against Nero. Following Nero's suicide, Galba marched on Rome and was declared emperor by the Senate at the advanced aged of 70, the first princeps from outside of the Julio-Claudian family. Cassius Dio relates that Galba put great emphasis on how the Senate had bestowed power on him, that "he did not adopt the name Caesar until the senate's envoys had come to him... or hitherto even styled himself emperor in any communication." After his accession, Cassius Dio continues, some citizens "even wore liberty caps, signifying that they had now become free... and voted to Galba the prerogatives pertaining to the imperial office." (Epitome LXIII.29.1)
His portrait, a venerable image of an elder statesman with a deep frown, craggy nose and serious, determined expression, represents a return to the veristic mode of portraiture popular in the height of the Republic. Under that structure, authority derived from age, rank and experience, qualities which were emphasised in sculptural portraits of senators at the time, against which the idealised Hellenistic style adopted by Augustus and the later Julio-Claudian emperors appears in marked contrast.
This reverse type also represents an innovation in Roman Imperial coinage, marking the first time the figure of Salus Generis Humani, invoking the health of humanity, appeared. Indeed, Suetonius writes that Galba received a letter from Vindex requesting him to become the "restorer of the liberty of the human race" (humano generi assertorem) in the fight against Nero. (Galba, 9.2) Sutherland argues that Suetonius' summary highlights this key phrase used in the revolt, which gave rise to a conspicuous new coin type of Salus Generis Humani, which was struck for Vindex in Gaul as an anti-Neronian slogan from early AD 68, and for Galba in Rome by the summer. (C. H. V. Sutherland, 'The concepts Adsertor and Salus as used by Vindex and Galba', The Numismatic Chronicle 144, 1984, p.32)
NGC Graded VF 5/5 - 3/5, graffito. Extremely Rare.
Ex Kingsdown Collection, Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction XXII, 7 October 2021, lot 691 (hammer: GBP 17,000).
Galba AV Aureus. Rome, July - August AD 68. IMP SER GALBA CAESAR AVG, laureate head to right / SALVS GEN HVMANI, draped female figure (Salus?) advancing to left with right foot on globe, sacrificing from patera over lit altar and holding rudder. RIC I 206; C. 237; BMCRE 38; Calicó 504. 7.21g, 19mm, 6h.
NGC Graded VF 5/5 - 3/5, graffito. Extremely Rare.
From the inventory of a US dealer;
Ex Kingsdown Collection, Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction XXII, 7 October 2021, lot 691 (hammer: £17,000).
Whilst Galba was proconsul of Nearer Spain, he became an ally of Vindex, the governor of Gaul, in his revolt against Nero. Following Nero's suicide, Galba marched on Rome and was declared emperor by the Senate at the advanced aged of 70, the first princeps from outside of the Julio-Claudian family. Cassius Dio relates that Galba put great emphasis on how the Senate had bestowed power on him, that "he did not adopt the name Caesar until the senate's envoys had come to him... or hitherto even styled himself emperor in any communication." After his accession, Cassius Dio continues, some citizens "even wore liberty caps, signifying that they had now become free... and voted to Galba the prerogatives pertaining to the imperial office." (Epitome LXIII.29.1)
His portrait, a venerable image of an elder statesman with a deep frown, craggy nose and serious, determined expression, represents a return to the veristic mode of portraiture popular in the height of the Republic. Under that structure, authority derived from age, rank and experience, qualities which were emphasised in sculptural portraits of senators at the time, against which the idealised Hellenistic style adopted by Augustus and the later Julio-Claudian emperors appears in marked contrast.
This reverse type also represents an innovation in Roman Imperial coinage, marking the first time the figure of Salus Generis Humani, invoking the health of humanity, appeared. Indeed, Suetonius writes that Galba received a letter from Vindex requesting him to become the "restorer of the liberty of the human race" (humano generi assertorem) in the fight against Nero. (Galba, 9.2) Sutherland argues that Suetonius' summary highlights this key phrase used in the revolt, which gave rise to a conspicuous new coin type of Salus Generis Humani, which was struck for Vindex in Gaul as an anti-Neronian slogan from early AD 68, and for Galba in Rome by the summer. (C. H. V. Sutherland, 'The concepts Adsertor and Salus as used by Vindex and Galba', The Numismatic Chronicle 144, 1984, p.32)