425, Lot: 392. Estimate $500. Sold for $1400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. Æ Dupondius(?) (32mm, 12.64 g, 11h). “Triumphal Coinage” issue. Rome mint; M. Maecilius Tullus, moneyer. Struck 7 BC. Laureate head of Augustus left, globe at point of neck; to right, Victory, touching fillet of laurel wreath and holding cornucopia / Legend around large S • C. RIC I 434. VF, brown patina, some roughness. Rare.

From the WRG Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 49 (17 March 1999), lot 1419.

This coin, unusual because of its obverse, has been the subject of scholarly speculation. The obverse clearly shows Augustus as a victorous commander. By 7 BC, however, when this coin was struck, Augustus, now in his 50s, no longer personally commanded Rome’s armies; instead, he acted as commander-in-chief, while it fell to his stepsons, Drusus and Tiberius, to actually take the field. Drusus died in 9 BC from complications resulting from a fall. Thereafter Tiberius became Rome’s main commander until his retirement to Rhodes in 4 BC. This issue may then commemorate Tiberius’ victories in Germania, as well as his subsequent triumph and assumption of the consulship for that year (Vell. Pat. 2.97).