Triton XIV, Lot: 812. Estimate $7500. Sold for $22000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Diocletian. AD 284-305. AV Aureus (20mm, 6.38 g, 6h). Post-reform issue. Cyzicus mint. Struck circa AD 287-289. DIOCLETIANVS AVGVSTVS, laureate head right / COS III, Diocletian on horseback right, raising right hand. RIC V 287; Lukanc, Diocletianvs p. 215, 3; Depeyrot 7/2 (same obverse die); Calicó 4445; Bastien, Donativa p. 62. Choice EF, a few minor marks. High relief portrait.

Ex Triton VII (13 January 2004), lot 1041.

The size, weight, and style of this aureus clearly are of post-reform type. As this coin must be dated to the third consulate of Diocletian, it serves as numismatic evidence for the theory that Diocletian's coinage reforms were enacted in two phases, with the first phase affecting the gold and silver coinage in the mid to late 280s (see D.H. Berry, "Diocletian's Reform of the Imperial Coinage," Seaby Coin & Medal Bulletin 762 (February 1982), pp. 52-53).