394, Lot: 454. Estimate $300. Sold for $1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Claudius. AD 41-54. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.54 g, 4h). Rome mint. Struck AD 46-47. Laureate head right / Battlemented wall inscribed IM[PE]R RECEPT enclosing praetorian camp in which Fides Praetorianorum stands left, holding spear in right hand, aquila before him; behind, a pediment with fortified flanking walls. RIC I 37; RSC 46. Good Fine, toned, light marks and scratches beneath the toning, light porosity.

Claudius was the first of many emperors to be raised to that office by the Praetorian Guard. This remarkable reverse type depicting the praetorian camp, which lay northeast of Rome outside the Servian Wall, celebrates the event.