AUGUSTUS SILVER DENARIUS – ISSUE OF SPANISH MINT WITH CORONA CIVICA – VF NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN OF THE 12 CAESARS (Inv. 18820)

$1,500.00

FPL V, 56 (18820). ROMAN EMPIRE. AUGUSTUS, 27 BC-14 AD.
Silver denarius, 3.81 g, 19 mm. Issue of a Spanish mint, perhaps Colonia Patricia, ca. 19 BC.
Obv. CAESAR, bare head of Augustus left, within dotted circle. Rev. OB CIVIS SERVATOS, within oak wreath (corona civica).
RIC I rev 77b.
Ex Southern Collector; ex Hirsch 279, lot 2253, “acquired 1980, Beckenbauer, Munich.”
NGC graded VF, Strike 3/5, Surface 4/5, extremely rare variety with head facing left.

The reverse type, an oak crown called the corona civica, was an honor bestowed upon Augustus by the Senate “for saving citizens” (ob civis servatos). Originally the corona civica was a military decoration given to a soldier who saved a colleague’s life in war, but here the Senate symbolically awarded it to Augustus for protecting the lives of Roman citizens by bringing the Civil War to an end. The type became a staple of Roman imperial iconography and was used in art and coinage throughout the Julio-Claudian dynasty and beyond – see for instance cat. nos. 65 and 69.