Octavian’s Propaganda Surrounding Actium

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 637. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $8500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Octavian. 32-31/29 BC. AV Aureus (7.74 g, 6h). Italian (Rome?) mint. Bare head right / CAESAR • DIVI • F below, equestrian statue of Octavian, bareheaded and nude to the waist, on horseback, galloping left, his right hand raised. RIC I 262; CRI 394; Calicó 187; BMCRE 94 = BMCRR Rome 4325-6; BN 82-4. Good VF, minor flaws, obverse and reverse fields smoothed at 3 o'clock. Coin sold AS IS. Struck on a broad flan. Rare.

Ex Vecchi 9 (4 December 1997), lot 13.

The gold aureus dated back only to the time of Sulla, circa 80 BC. During the Republican and Imperatorial periods, issues of aurei were associated almost exclusively with military activity and were usually produced by travelling mints under the authority of commanders in the field. Augustus transformed the aureus into an integral part of his currency system. It was produced by virtually all of his successors, until it was replaced by Constantine’s solidus some three centuries later.