Caracalla, wtih Geta as Caesar. AD 198-217. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.39 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 202. M AVRELIVS ANTON. AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Caracalla right / P SEPT GETA CAES PONT, bare-headed, draped, and cuirassed bust of Geta right. RIC IV 17; Calicó 2863 (same dies). Superb EF, wonderful toning, a tiny delamination below the bust of Geta serves to identify this exceptional example. Outstanding portraits. Very rare.
Ex August Voirol Collection (Münzen und Medaillen 38, 6-7 December 1968), lot 488; Münzen und Medaillen 17 (2-4 December 1957), lot 528; probably from the Cologne-Gertrudenstrasse Hoard of 1909.
The toning on this coin is distinctively like that of other Aurei found in the Cologne-Gertrudenstrasse Hoard of 1909. Workers digging the foundation of a building discovered the hoard of about 15,000 denarii and 150 or so aurei. Selling their find almost immediately, they quickly squandered their profits in dissolute living. For more information on the hoard see Die Fundmünzen der römischen Zeit in Deutschland. Abteilung VI Nordrhein-Westfalen. Band 1, 1 Stadt Köln by E. Nuber (Berlin, 1984), pp. 254-357. Portraits of living Severan family members were placed on both sides of the coin in order to convey the stability of the imperial family. How ironic, then, that the contempt these two boys had toward one other would jeopardize the longevity of the family dynasty.
