Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 731. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $6250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AR Denarius (3.79 g, 7h). Spanish mint - Emerita. Struck 19-18 BC. CAESAR AVGVSTVS, head left, wearing oak wreath / DIVVS • IVLIVS across field, comet with eight rays and tail. RIC I 37b; RSC 97; BMCRE 326-7 = BMCRR Gaul 138-9; BN 1298-304. Good VF, lightly toned.

This denarius reflects Augustus’ use of his coinage to convey a political message. The obverse shows him wearing the corona civica, an oak wreath awarded to an individual who had personally saved a citizen (in Augustus' case it was the citizen body of the Roman world). The reverse depicts the comet which made a continuous daylight appearance during July 44 BC, and was associated with the deification of Julius Caesar.