Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1082. Estimate $15000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $11000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LICINIUS I. 308-324 AD. AV Aureus (5.28 gm). Nicomedia mint. Struck 320 AD. LICINIVS AVG OB D V FILII SVI, bare-headed, draped and cuirassed facing bust / IOVI CONS LICINI AVG, Jupiter seated facing on platform, holding Victory on globe and sceptre; eagle with wreath at feet, platform inscribed SIC X/SIC XX in two lines; SMNG. RIC VII 21; Depeyrot 31/1. EF, small obverse abrasion. Very rare. (See color enlargement on plate 17.) ($15000)

The obverse legend, "Licinius Augustus, by (the grace) of the gods, the fifth (year) of his son", marks the quinquennalia of Licinius II. The reverse continues the type of Licinius' decennalia in 318. The facing portrait of Licinius, and a parallel issue for his son, is the first frontal representation of an emperor, a style that would become standardized in the late Roman and Byzantine period.