JULIUS CAESAR SILVER DENARIUS – LIFETIME ISSUE OF SEPULLIUS MACER – CHOICE FINE NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERATORIAL COIN OF THE 12 CAESARS (Inv. 21252)

$5,500.00

21252. ROMAN IMPERATORIAL. JULIUS CAESAR, d. 44 BC.
Silver Denarius, 3.00 g, 17 mm. Lifetime issue struck by moneyer P. Sepullius Macer at Rome, January-February 44 BC.
Obv. CAESAR IM[P], laureate and veiled head of Caesar right. Rev. P SEPVLLIVS [MACER], Venus standing left, holding Victoria and scepter with star at bottom.
Alföldi Type V, 101-103 (Obv 12/Rev 38); Crawford, 480/5b; Sydenham, 1071.
NGC graded CHOICE FINE, Strike 4/5, Surface 4/5.

This denarius, struck in early 44 BC, presents portrait of Julius Caesar in a veristic style (hyper-realism) and wearing a laurel wreath—the Roman corona triumphalis. Although he was permitted by the Senate to wear this wreath on all public occasions due to his many victories, it was believed in antiquity that he regularly wore it out of embarrassment at his receding hairline. The reverse type illustrates the repression of the traditional personal influence of the moneyer on Roman Republican coinage in favor of Caesarean iconography. While the legend names the moneyer P. Sepullius Macer, the type depicts Venus Victrix, a goddess closely associated with the gens Iulia and with the personal successes of Julius Caesar.