TIBERIUS SILVER DENARIUS – FAMED TRIBUTE PENNY OF BIBLE – CHOCE XF NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN OF THE 12 CAESARS (Inv. 16935)

$1,800.00

16935. ROMAN EMPIRE. TIBERIUS, AD 14–37.
Silver Denarius, 3.77 g, 21 mm. Issue of Lugdunum (Lyon, France).
Obv. TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS, laureate head of Tiberius right. Rev. PONTIF MAXIM, female figure (Livia as Pax) seated right on throne, holding scepter and olive branch.
RIC I rev 30.
NGC grated CHOICE XF, Strike 4/5, Surface 3/5, struck on a broad planchet and with an outstanding portrait of Tiberius.

The Tiberius denarius type is frequently described by numismatists as the “Tribute Penny” type because in the influential King James Version of the story in Matthew (paralleled also in Mark 12:13–17 and Luke 20:20–26) the Greek word denarion (= Latin denarius) is rendered as “penny” in English. This translation was designed to make the ancient denarius comprehensible to English people of the seventeenth century. It was not entirely inappropriate considering that the early modern English penny evolved from the medieval denier, which had in turn developed from the Roman denarius.