NERO GOLD AUREUS – ISSUE UNDER CLAUDIUS EX J. P MORGAN AND CONSUL WEBER COLLECTIONS – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN OF THE 12 CAESARS (Inv. 20541)

$19,500.00

20541. ROMAN EMPIRE. NERO, AD 54-68.
Gold Aureus, 7.70 g, 19 mm. Issue of Lugdunum while serving as Caesar under Claudius, ca. AD 51.
Obv. NERO CLAVD CAES DRVSVS GERM PRINC IVVENT, draped bust of young Nero left. Rev. SA[CERD] COOPT IN OMN CONL SVPRA NVM EX S C, emblems of the pontificate: simpulum and lituus in upper field, tripod and patera in lower field.
RIC I rev, 76 (under Claudius); Calicó 441.
Published: Wayte Raymond, The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection: catalogue of the Greek and Roman coins, Abukir medallions [and] Roman gold bar (1953), no. 66.
Ex Myron Stepath Collection, CNG/NAC 40, 12/4/1996, 1384 = ex J. Pierpont Morgan, Stack’s 9/14/1983, lot 51 = Consul Eduard Friedrich Weber, Jacob Hirsch 10, 5/10/1909, lot 1070.
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 5/5, surface 3/5, “brushed,” J. P. Morgan and Weber provenances noted on label, with a spectacular and elegantly engraved portrait of the very young Nero.

The aging Claudius married Agrippina the Younger in AD 49, and within a year, she had successfully convinced the emperor to formally adopt her son Nero, despite the fact that he already had his own son, Britannicus, as a legitimate heir. The portrait of the young Nero on the obverse of this aureus celebrates the entry of the young Caesar into public life in AD 51 at the age of 13. As Caesar, Nero’s limited duties included attending military reviews, pleading the cases of provincial cities before Claudius, and sometimes acting as a judge. Only three years after this issue, Claudius died—possibly poisoned by Agrippina—and Britannicus was eliminated to allow Nero to assume the throne as emperor.