AUGUSTUS SILVER DENARIUS – FAMOUS CAPRICORN TYPE EX BEMENT COLLECTION SOLD IN 1924 – GOOD VF ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN OF THE 12 CAESARS (Inv. 21389)

$1,975.00

21389. ROMAN EMPIRE. AUGUSTUS, 27 BC–14 AD.
Silver Denarius (perhaps a fourrée), 3.02 g, 20 mm. Issue of an uncertain Spanish mint, ca. 18–16 BC.
Obv. Bare head of Augustus left. Rev. AVGVSTVS, Capricorn right, holding globe and rudder, cornucopia perched on its back.
RIC I 126; RSC 21.
Ex Clarence Bement Collection, Naville Ars Classica VIII, 6/25/1924, lot 442.
Good VF, gray toning, surface roughness, given the low weight of the coin and some chips on the surface, it is possible that this coin is a fourrée.

The Capricorn is among the most interesting of all images on Augustus’ coinage since it was promoted as the emperor’s astrological sign guaranteeing his great rule and the prosperity that would accompany it. The Roman biographer Suetonius, the man who wrote the Twelve Caesars, mentioned the Capricorn: “From this moment (when an astrologer acknowledged Augustus’ greatness after reading his horoscope) he had such great faith in his own destiny that he made public his horoscope and later minted a silver coin with the Zodiac sign Capricorn, under which he was born” (Suetonius, Augustus, 94, as cited in Zanker’s The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, p. 48).