Heritage World Coin Auctions
CICF Signature Sale 3032 10-12 April 2014
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Ancients
Nero (AD 54-68). AV aureus (19mm, 7.63 gm, 7h). Rome, AD 63–64. NERO • CAESAR • AVG • IMP, bare head of Nero right / PONTIF MAX TR - P • X COS • IIII P • P around, EX - S C across fields, helmeted Virtus standing left, resting right foot on captured armor, holding parazonium against knee with right hand and spear in left. RIC 40. BMCRE 45. Calicó 437. Cohen 232. With attractive reddish toning in fields characteristic of the Boscoreale Hoard of 1895. NGC (photo-certificate) Choice VF★ 5/5 - 5/5. From The Andre Constantine Dimitriadis Collection. Ex Stack's (New York, 8 December 1993), lot 2012. Nero's name has become synonymous with decadent, depraved tyranny. It is surprising, then, that the first five years of his reign were looked upon as a golden age of wise, moderate government. Nero began life in AD 37 as the doted-upon son of Agrippina Junior, sister of the emperor Caligula, by her first husband, the senator Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus. His childhood and adolescence advanced amid a backdrop of scandals, coups, plots and executions endemic to the Imperial family. In AD 49, Agrippina married her uncle, the emperor Claudius, and she immediately began pushing Nero to the fore in the succession. Having made the necessary arrangements, Agippina poisoned Claudius and Nero duly became emperor at the tender age of 17. At first true power resided in his mother's hands, but within a few months Nero's able advisors, the philosopher Seneca and the praetorian prefect Burrus, had pushed Agrippina aside and seized the reigns of government. They proved excellent rulers, allowing the Senate a large consulting role, keeping finances in check and managing provincial affairs with restraint.
Estimate: 6000-7500 USD
Nero (AD 54-68). AV aureus (19mm, 7.63 gm, 7h). Rome, AD 63–64. NERO • CAESAR • AVG • IMP, bare head of Nero right / PONTIF MAX TR - P • X COS • IIII P • P around, EX - S C across fields, helmeted Virtus standing left, resting right foot on captured armor, holding parazonium against knee with right hand and spear in left. RIC 40. BMCRE 45. Calicó 437. Cohen 232. With attractive reddish toning in fields characteristic of the Boscoreale Hoard of 1895. NGC (photo-certificate) Choice VF★ 5/5 - 5/5. From The Andre Constantine Dimitriadis Collection. Ex Stack's (New York, 8 December 1993), lot 2012. Nero's name has become synonymous with decadent, depraved tyranny. It is surprising, then, that the first five years of his reign were looked upon as a golden age of wise, moderate government. Nero began life in AD 37 as the doted-upon son of Agrippina Junior, sister of the emperor Caligula, by her first husband, the senator Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus. His childhood and adolescence advanced amid a backdrop of scandals, coups, plots and executions endemic to the Imperial family. In AD 49, Agrippina married her uncle, the emperor Claudius, and she immediately began pushing Nero to the fore in the succession. Having made the necessary arrangements, Agippina poisoned Claudius and Nero duly became emperor at the tender age of 17. At first true power resided in his mother's hands, but within a few months Nero's able advisors, the philosopher Seneca and the praetorian prefect Burrus, had pushed Agrippina aside and seized the reigns of government. They proved excellent rulers, allowing the Senate a large consulting role, keeping finances in check and managing provincial affairs with restraint.
Estimate: 6000-7500 USD