Auguste (27-14)
Denier - Caesaraugusta (19-18).
Rare et magnifique exemplaire.
Exemplaire de la vente Roma Numismatics XII du 29 septembre 2016, N°611.
3.82g - RIC I 42a - BMC 334.
Superbe à FDC - AU*

The legend on the reverse of this coin is inscribed on the clipeus virtutis, the shield of valour which was awarded to Augustus. In the words of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti VI.34: “In my sixth and seventh consulships [i.e. 28-27 BC], when I had extinguished the flames of civil war [that is the victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium], after receiving by universal consent the absolute control of affairs, I transferred the republic from my own control to the will of the Senate and the Roman people. For this service on my part, I was given the title of Augustus by decree of the Senate, and the doorposts of my house were covered with laurels by public act, and a civic crown was fixed above my door, and a golden shield was placed in the Curia Julia who inscription testified that the Senate and the Roman people gave me this in recognition of my valour, my clemency, my justice and my piety”. It was struck two or three years before the establishment of an Imperial mint in Lyon (Lugdunum), when many Roman coins were still being struck in Spain, where four legions were based and both gold and silver mines were being exploited. Their exact locations are still being discussed today, but this coin is attributed to Caesaraugusta, that is the Iberian city of Salduie (today called Zaragoza): Augustus established a Roman colony there which was named in his honour, in order to pay army veterans of the Cantabrian wars (in 19 BC under the direction of Agrippa)