CNG 88, Lot: 1209. Estimate $500. Sold for $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.65 g, 6h). Rome mint. P. Petronius Turpilianus, moneyer. Struck 19/8 BC. Head of Liber right, wearing ivy-wreath / Parthian kneeling right in attitude of submission, offering up vexillum (marked X) and extending hand. RIC I 287; RSC 485. Good VF, toned, slightly off center, graffiti under tone on obverse.

This coin commemorates the major diplomatic coup of Augustus’ reign: the recovery of the Roman standards, lost by Crassus at the battle of Carrhae in 54 BC, from the Parthians. The reference to Liber, who was the Latin equivalent of Dionysus and of eastern origin, is a special mythological allusion to the event and an ad hoc use of such mythology by Augustus that later would be considered unsuitable and discarded from the canon of his public image.