Triton XVII, Lot: 621. Estimate $2000. Sold for $3750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.85 g, 6h). Spanish mint (Colonia Caesaraugusta?). Struck 19-18 BC. CAESAR AVGVSTVS, head left, wearing oak wreath / DIVVS • IVLIVS across field, comet with eight rays and tail. RIC I 37b; RSC 97; BMCRE 326-7 = BMCRR Gaul 138-9; BN 1298-304. Near EF, attractive dark gray toning, traces of deposits.

From the Archer M. Huntington Collection, ANS 1001.1.22818.

The obverse shows Augustus 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.