Augustus Rarity Missed By RIC and RSC

445, Lot: 411. Estimate $750. Sold for $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.69 g, 5h). Uncertain Spanish mint (Colonia Caesaraugusta?). Struck 19-18 BC. CAESAR AVGVSTVS, head right, wearing oak wreath / Victory flying right, holding wreath over shield inscribed CL • V; column in background, S • P • Q • R left and right, high in field. RIC I 46A var. (shield uninscribed); RSC 289 var. (bare head); BN 1328 (same rev. die, Fourrée [possibly in error?]); CNR 778 (same dies); CNG 64, lot 919 (same dies; misattributed as RIC I 94); Künker 295, lot 639 (same dies, hammer €1700). VF, broad flan, circular banker’s mark on obverse. Very rare. Only the CNG and Künker examples in CoinArchives.

This is one of a series of Spanish mint issues honoring Augustus for receiving the Clipeus Virtutis, or “shield of virtue,” awarded by the Senate for his “courage, clemency, justice and piety” in (provisionally) restoring the Republic. Unlike most other issues in the Clippeus Virtutis series, this particular variety is very rare. This is only the second example of this rarity CNG has offered.