Alföldi Plate Coin
The Caesarians. Julius Caesar. April 44 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.82 g, 4h). Rome mint; C. Cossutius Maridianus, moneyer. Laureate and veiled head right; apex to left, lituus to right; PARENS PATRIAE upward to left; CAESAR upward to right / C • COSSVTIVS and MARID-IANVS arranged in form of cross; A A A F • F in angles. Crawford 480/19; Alföldi Type XVII, 80 (A12/R3;
this coin); CRI 112; Sydenham 1069; RSC 8. In NGC encapsulation 6155876-006, graded XF, Strike: 4/5, Surface: 4/5, bankers marks. One of the rarer portrait types for Julius Caesar.
Ex Heinrich Peter Rudolf Collection; Künker FPL 164 (August 2002), no. 27.
Gaius Cossutius Maridianus was apparently the last man appointed to the recently expanded quatrovirate of moneyers in 44 BC. All of his Caesar heads are veiled, alluding to Caesar’s role as Pontifex Maximus. This issue is the last Caesar portrait type struck in 44 BC and is, according to David R. Sear, “clearly posthumous, presumably belonging to mid-April.”