Calicó Plate Coin

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 715. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $11000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AV Aureus (7.97 g, 6h). Pergamum mint. Struck 19 BC. AVGVSTVS, bare head right / Sphinx, with wings raised, seated right. RIC I 512 corr. (head left); Calicó 156a (this coin illustrated); BMCRE 682 = BMCRR East 309; BN 973-5. VF, minor marks. Very rare.

Ex Gilbert Steinberg Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica, 16 November 1994), lot 145.

The Sphinx, the mythological creature whose riddle was solved by Oedipus, became one of the specific symbols associated with Augustus, including its use on his personal seal.