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Beard Of Mourning?

490075. Sold For $2750

Nero. AD 54-68. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.41 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 67-68. NERO CAESAR AVG P P, laureate head right, with slight beard / SA-LVS, Salus seated left on ornamented throne, holding patera and resting arm at side. RIC I 72; RSC 320. EF, minor deposits on reverse. Rare issue with P P in obverse legend.


On this denarius struck in the last year of his reign, Nero wears a slight beard extending down his cheeks and under his chin. Marble portrait busts of the same era show him with a similar beard. This was something of an innovation, as most previous Roman emperors had been depicted clean-shaven, with exception of Titus, who sported a slight “beard of mourning” in the months following his father’s death (Augustus, in his coinage as Octavian, is likewise bearded on a few of his earliest issues after the death of Julius Caesar). Nero’s facial growth may have originated as a similar mourning beard grown after the death of his four-month old daughter, Claudia Augusta, in mid-63, followed two years later by the death of his wife Poppaea Sabina, allegedly as the result of a kick delivered by Nero during a domestic quarrel.