Very Rare Dynastic Aureus

CNG 109, Lot: 638. Estimate $20000. Sold for $19000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Nero, with Agrippina Junior. AD 54-68. AV Aureus (18mm, 7.54 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 55. NERO CLAVD DIVI F CAES AVG GERM IMP TR P COS, jugate bareheaded busts right, of Nero, a fold of cloak on back of neck, and of Agrippina, draped / AGRIPP AVG DIVI CLAVD NERONIS CAES MATER, EX S C in field above elephants, Divus Claudius, radiate, holding eagle-tipped scepter in right hand and Divus Augustus, radiate, holding patera in right, scepter in left, driving quadriga of elephants left. RIC I 6; WCN 3; Calicó 397; BMCRE 7; BN 10-12; Biaggi 218. Near EF, toned with underlying luster. Two finely engraved portraits struck in high relief. Very rare.

From the Gasvoda Collection. Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 94 (6 October 2016), lot 114 (hammer 47,500 CHF); Numismatica Ars Classica 64 (17 May 2012), lot 1116 (hammer 55,000 CHF).

From the consignor: This rare type with conjoined busts of Nero and Agrippina was struck from a number of different obverse dies. This, the last of the Nero types which included Agrippina, must have been “called in” for recoining after Agrippina fell out of favor. Less than a dozen specimens are recorded in CoinArchives.