OCTAVIAN / AUGUSTUS SILVER DENARIUS – SCARCE EARLY ISSUE DEPICTING VENUS AND SHIELD WITH COMET – VF NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERATORIAL COIN (Inv. 19031)

$3,250.00

19031. ROMAN IMPERATORIAL. OCTAVIAN (AUGUSTUS), 27 BC–AD 14.
Silver Denarius, 3.52 g, 20 mm. Issue of an Italian mint, ca. 32–31 BC.
Obv. Head of Augustus right. Rev. CAESAR DIVI F, Venus to right, seen from the back, holding helmet and scepter and leaning on column to her left; shield with comet at lower left, propped against column.
RIC I rev 250a.
NGC graded VF, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5, a scarce denarius variety.

On this coin Octavian proclaims himself to be the “son of the divine Julius” and depicts Venus, the divine progenitor of the Julian clan. The goddess gazes at the helmet of her lover Mars, who was considered to have aided Octavian at the battle of Philippi, while his shield bears a stellar symbol, almost certainly the comet (sidus Iulium) symbolizing the deification of Caesar, Octavian’s adoptive father. The noted German art historial Paul Zanker, in his book The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, illustrates this type of denarius twice (figs. 27c and 41b) and comments on the importance of the coin: “His protectress is Venus Genetrix…who regards the arms of Mars, with the sidus Iulium blazing on the shield.” (Zanker, p. 53).