Deification of Julius Caesar

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 729. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AR Denarius (3.95 g, 5h). Spanish mint - Emerita. Struck 19-18 BC. CAESAR AVGVSTVS, head right, wearing oak wreath / DIVVS • IVLIVS across field, comet with eight rays and tail. RIC I 37a; RSC 98; BMCRE 323-5 = BMCRR Gaul 135-7; BN 1292-7. Good VF, toned, surfaces a little rough, metal flaw in obverse field.

Ex Kricheldorf XXVII (12 November 1973), lot 352.

This denarius reflects Augustus’ use of his coinage to convey a political message. The obverse shows him wearing the corona civica, an oak wreath awarded to an individual who had personally saved a citizen (in Augustus' case it was the citizen body of the Roman world). The reverse depicts the comet which made a continuous daylight appearance during July 44 BC, and was associated with the deification of Julius Caesar.