271, Lot: 54. Estimate $2000. Sold for $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.97 g, 10h). Rome mint; M. Durmius, triumvir monetalis. Struck 19-18 BC. CAESAR AVGVSTVS, bare head left / Man-headed bull standing right, head facing; above, crowning Victory flying right; below, M[ · DVRMIVS] III · VIR. RIC I 319; RSC 432. Good VF, toned, bankers’ marks. Very rare.

Property of Princeton Economics acquired by Martin Armstrong. Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 15 (18 May 1999), lot 250.

The reverse type of this rare and interesting coin immediately recalls Greek types of Campania and presumably was intended to proclaim the ethnic origin of the otherwise unknown moneyer Marcus Durmius. While noting the increased diversity in the Roman aristocracy by the date this coin was struck, Gary Farney (Ethnic identity and aristocratic competition in Republican Rome [Cambridge, 2007], p. 211) notes: “Still, one must wonder what Roman noblemen of the traditional aristocracy thought of how the moneyer chose to present his Campanian identity… Campanians were often accused of excessive pride in their origins, being arrogant enough (from the Roman perspective) to continue to dub their magistrates praetores. With this in mind, other Romans might have attributed this issue to Durmius’ innate arrogance, particularly because the coins recall the ‘independent’ history of Campania.”

In addition to the light it sheds on a transforming aristocracy under the early empire, this issue is an excellent demonstration of the acute Roman awareness of Greek numismatic history. Indeed, Suetonius (Aug. 75) hints that Augustus himself might have been a collector of “coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money”.