Watch List notes:

Nero. 54-68 AD. Copper semis, 6.53 (6h). Rome, 64 AD. Obv: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM P M TR P IMP P P Head laureate right. Rx: CERTAMEN - QVINQ - ROM CO, without S C, Prize table, its legs ending in lions' feet, on top of which are an urn decorated with at least two human figures, and an oak wreath whose ties hang down to left and right of the table's back right leg. On the strut between the table's two front legs, two griffins leaping towards each other; above the griffins, a hanging garland fastened at both ends and in the middle; below on the ground, a shield. BM 250 note (Naples). Paris 252, pl. XLIII (same dies). Cohen 65 (6 Fr.). RIC 91. MacDowall 306, p. 44 (3 spec., Paris, Naples, Oxford, all same dies as ours). Rare early copper semis without SC, fine style. Fine/VF

Acquired from Platt in Paris, June 1968

From Nero's earliest issue of bronze coins, struck in 64 AD, experimentally omitting the normal letters S C, and before the change from copper to orichalcum asses and semisses. These rare copper semisses without S C are found with two reverse types, Roma seated and Prize table. The Prize table pieces, according to MacDowall, were struck from only one obverse die and two reverse dies, namely our reverse die reading CERTAMEN and a second die reading just CERTAM. This reverse type commemorates Nero's establishment in 60 AD of games on the Greek model to be held at Rome every four years: "Contests on a four-year cycle established at Rome"