Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 1030. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $6400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARUS. 282-283 AD. AV Aureus (4.36 gm). Ticinum mint. Struck October 282 AD. IMP C M AVR CARVS P F AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / PROVIDE-NT-IA AVG, Providentia standing left, holding globe in right hand, transverse sceptre in left. RIC V 62 var. (PROVIDENT); Pink VI/2, pg. 26 var. (same); Calicó 4271 var. (same); Cohen 66. Lightly toned, choice EF. Apparently unpublished variety. ($7500)

The general Carus brought down an able emperor when he rose in revolt against Probus in the autumn of 282 AD. Restive troops, offended at being ordered to build roads and other public works projects that did not offer the prospect of loot, joined the rebellion and murdered the emperor near Sirmium. According to Pink (and supported by the Venèra hoard), this particular coin was part of a hasty "pre-emission" of coinage issued at Ticinum upon the accession of Carus. At the time of his revolt, he was mustering troops in Raetia and Noricum for Probus' Persian campaign, so Ticinum, being the closest mint, was used to strike his first coinage. The gold and silver (antoniniani) of this issue would have been used to secure or reward the loyalty of the local legions and Roman administrators.