IMPER(atore) RECEPT(o)

290, Lot: 351. Estimate $200. Sold for $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Claudius. AD 41-54. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.67 g, 10h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. Struck AD 44-45. Laureate head right / Battlemented wall inscribed IMPER RECEPT enclosing praetorian camp in which Fides Praetorianorum stands left, aquila before him; behind, pediment with fortified flanking walls. RIC I 26; von Kaenel Type 21; Lyon 41; RSC 44. Good Fine, lightly toned, some horn silver deposits around edge and above head.

Claudius was the first of many emperors to be raised to that office by the Praetorian Guard. This remarkable reverse type depicting the praetorian camp, which lay north-east of Rome outside the Servian Wall, celebrates the event.