431, Lot: 365. Estimate $500. Sold for $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Nero. As Caesar, AD 50-54. Æ Dupondius (27.5mm, 17.73 g, 9h). Uncertain Balkan/Thracian mint. Struck under Claudius, AD 51-54. NERO CLAVD CAES DRVS GERM PRINC IVVENT, bareheaded and draped bust of a young Nero left / SACERD COOPT IN OMN CONL SVPRA NVM EX S C, simpulum and lituus above tripod and patera respectively. RIC I 107 (Claudius); von Kaenel, Thrakien Type B, N5-6 and Tafel 26, 39-40. VF, green-brown surfaces, smoothing and tooling.

Ex TimeLine Auctions (25 November 2017), lot 1055.

In March of AD 51, the thirteen-year-old Nero, adopted son of Claudius, was formally declared an adult, thus taking a step toward Agrippina’s goal of her son becoming the successor to the emperor. Nero was given the title of consul designate, granted honors by the praetorian guards and equites, and also enrolled as priest in the four religious colleges of Rome, the pontifices (simpulum), augurs (lituus), quindecimviri sacris faciendus (tripod) and the septemviri epulones (patera), whose symbols adorn the reverse of this type.