Sale: Nomos 9, Lot: 212. Estimate CHF1800.  Closing Date: Monday, 20 October 2014.  Sold For CHF1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus, 27 BC-AD 14. Denarius (Silver, 17mm, 3.78 g 7), Rome, M. Durmius, BC 19. CAESAR AVGVSTVS Bare head of Augustus to right. Rev. M DVRMIVS / IIIVIR Lion attacking stag to left. BMC 63. Cohen 431. RIC 318. Lightly toned and with a fine portrait. Minor marks and reverse slightly off center, otherwise, extremely fine.

From the collection of Bob Levy, Bank Leu 57, 25 May 1993, 219, ex Superior, December 1988, 2276.

This splendid coin is one of the last Roman imperial issues to have a moneyer’s name on its reverse. It reminds us of Augustus’s support for Republican tradition in allowing the names of the triumviri who had charge of the mint to put their names on the coinage. This magistracy was a relatively junior one, but was a stepping stone on the cursus honorum that led to the consulate. Each member of the collegium forming the IIIviri monetalis could choose the types and sign the gold, silver and aes coins for which he was responsible. Thus, not only could the types vary between different collegia, but also from moneyer to moneyer within a collegium. Marcus Durmius, the moneyer here, was in a collegium with P. Petronius Trupilianus and L. Aquilius Florus in c. 19 BC. The main topics of their types were the return of the standards lost to Parthia, the honours of 27 BC, and the so-called “family” types, of which this is one. The reverse is clearly based on the types used at Velia some three hundred years earlier and it seems likely that the Durmii came from that area.