Tibère (14-37)
Quinaire d’or - Lyon (33-34).
Rarissime et magnifique exemplaire.
3.92g - RIC 19 - Giard 140 - King 16 (4 exemplaires)
Superbe - CHOICE XF

Augustus had wished to choose Marcus Agrippa as his successor, but he died in 12 BC. The choice then fell onto Agrippa’s sons Lucius (d. AD 2)
and Gaius (d. AD 4), but they too died before Augustus, which is why he adopted Tiberius in AD 4 but only on condition that he would in turn adopt Germanicus – who had married Augustus’ niece Antonia Minor. In this context, well aware that he had not been his first choice, Tiberius chose voluntarily to advertise himself as the son of his divine predecessor on the obverse legend. This denomination, worth half a denarius (when struck in silver) or half an aureus (when struck in gold), had been created early in the Republic but was rarely used, and it was certainly a conscious choice of Tiberius to strike it, copying the type of those which Augustus had started to strike in Lugdunum in 11-10 BC (and then struck almost annually).