Triton XVII, Lot: 635. Estimate $3000. Sold for $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.86 g, 12h). Rome mint; L. Lentulus, moneyer. Struck 12 BC. AVGVSTVS, bare head right / L • LENTVLVS • FLAMEN MARTIALIS, statue of Agrippa(?) on left, holding Victory in right hand and spear in left, being crowned with star by Augustus standing facing to right, holding in left hand a round shield inscribed C • V set on ground. RIC I 415; RSC 419; BMCRE 124-5 = BMCRR Rome 4674-5; BN 555-9. EF, handsome brown and gray toning. Very rare.

From the Archer M. Huntington Collection, ANS 1001.1.22523.

The symbol of the star was closely associated with Divus Julius in Augustan art (see, for example, lot 621 above), but Mattingly (BMCRE p. cvii) notes: “L. Lentulus’ solitary type shows us Augustus crowning a statue of Agrippa (not Julius Caesar). The star suggests of course divinity, but is not unsuitable the illustrious dead, even when not deified. The title of Lentulus, ‘flamen martialis’, leads us to suppose that the statue of Agrippa was in some way associated with Mars; probably it was placed in the temple of ‘Mars Ultor’. The interpretation of the figure as Julius Caesar would leave us quite uncertain as to the significance of the type.”