A New and Better Age

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 778. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $20000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AV Aureus (8.05 g, 5h). Rome mint. L. Mescinius Rufus, moneyer. Struck 16 BC. IMP • CAESAR TR • POT • IIX, laureate head right / L • ME-SCI-NIVS above, AVG • SVF • P in exergue, on right, Augustus, bareheaded and togate, seated left on stool on platform inscribed LVD • S, giving suffimenta, taken from a box at his feet, to one of two togate figures standing right, on left. RIC I 350; Calicó 139; BMCRE 85 = BMCRR Rome 4487; BN 330. Good VF, a few minor marks, slight wave to flan. Very rare.

Ex Leu 61 (17 May 1995), lot 224; Lanz 50 (27 November 1989), lot 572; G. Marchesi Collection.

This very rare type commemorates the declaration by Augustus in 17 BC of a new saeculum, to mark the inception of a new and better age. The Sibylline books were re-opened and all the old religious customs were observed, including the distribution of the suffimenta 'incense' and the celebration of the concomitant games.