Earliest Portrait of Caesar to Appear on Coins

Triton XIX, Lot: 356. Estimate $3000. Sold for $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BITHYNIA, Nicaea. Julius Caesar. Æ (24mm, 8.38 g, 11h). C. Vibius Pansa, proconsul. Dated CY 236 (47/6 BC). Bare head of Caesar right; [N]IKAEΩN behind / [N]IKAEΩN, Nike advancing right, holding palm frond in right hand, wreath in left; monograms to lower left and inner right, ςΛΣ (date) in exergue. RG 11; SNG Copenhagen –; BMC 8-9; RPC I 2026. VF, green and brown patina. Rare.

From the V. Robert Chiodo Collection. Ex Garth R. Drewry Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 73, 13 September 2006), lot 708.

This type was the first anywhere to feature the portrait of Julius Caesar. C. Vibius Pansa was part of the Caesarian faction at Rome and probably owed his proconsulship to his patron. The only other definite lifetime portrait of Caesar from the provincial series was an issue of circa 45 BC at Lampsacus (RPC I 2268-2269). Both of these issues preceded the earliest appearance of his portrait at Rome, on the denarii of M. Mettius in January, in 44 BC.