Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 663. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $10000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Octavian. 28 BC. AR Denarius (3.94 g, 12h). Pergamum mint. CAESAR • DIVI • F COS • VI, bare head right; below, small Capricorn right / AEGVPTO above, CAPTA below, crocodile standing right with jaws closed. RIC I 545; CRI 432; RSC 4; BMCRE 653 = BMCRR East 246; BN 928-30. Good VF, toned, small test mark on edge. Rare.

Ex Gilbert Steinberg Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica, 16 November 1994), lot 130; Ernst Justus Haeberlin Collection (Cahn, 17 July 1933), lot 3180.

Following the decisive battle of Actium, in August of 30 BC Octavian invaded Egypt and founded the Prefecture of Egypt, leaving intact the Ptolemaic structures in culture and administration. Octavian struck this issue to commemorate the event; the reverse depicts a crocodile which was the symbol of the country and, locally, an important deity.

The small capricorn below the bust represents Octavian’s birth sign and appeared often as a coin type during his reign.