Sale: Nomos 6, Lot: 130. Estimate CHF2250.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 May 2012.  Sold For CHF5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Octavian. Denarius (Silver, 3.59 g 9), Uncertain Italian mint, either Rome or Brundisium, c. 32-29. Bare head of Octavian to right. Rev. CAESAR DIVI F Venus, half draped from below the waist, turned to the right, holding a helmet in her right hand, a transverse scepter in her left and with her left elbow propped on the top of a low column behind her, against which a shield ornamented with a star leans. BMC 599. Cohen 62. RIC 250a. An attractive and nicely toned example. Nearly extremely fine.

This issue was produced in the years just following Actium, during which Octavian was setting up the system that was to turn him into Augustus. The reverse type is a direct reference to those used on Caesar’s coinage of 44 BC.