Rare Divus Claudius Aureus

CNG 112, Lot: 595. Estimate $7500. Sold for $6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Divus Claudius. Died AD 54. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.63 g, 6h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. Struck under Nero, AD 54-55. DIVVS CLAVDIVS AVGVSTVS, laureate head left / EX • S • C • in exergue, slow quadriga right, with tensa (car) in form of small temple, showing front, the tensa with pediment like a temple and decorated with two pateras and a lituus, surmounted by four miniature horses, flanked by Victories left and right; on the side and front are figures (Victory and Virtus(?) and wreath). RIC I 4 (Nero); WCN 1; von Kaenel Type 53 (unlisted dies); Lyon 1 (unlisted dies); Calicó 354; BMCRE 4-5 (Nero); BN 1-2 (Nero); Biaggi 203; Jameson –; Mazzini 31. Toned, minor edge scrape. Good VF. Rare.

The reverse commemorates the triumph that Claudius celebrated in AD 44 on the occasion of the conquest of Britain. A tensa was a carriage or chariot on which depictions of the gods were brought to the Games in the Circus in Rome (the Ludi Circenses). The consecration coins of Divus Claudius and a similar type on the coins of Divus Vespasian (RIC II 360 [Titus]) prove that the same honor was sometimes accorded to deified emperors.