Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 1041. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DIOCLETIAN. 284-305 AD. AV Post-Reform Aureus (6.38 gm). Cyzicus mint. Struck circa 287-289 AD. DIOCLETIANVS AVGVSTVS, laureate head right / COS III, Diocletian on horseback right, right hand raised. RIC V 287; Lukanc, Diocletianvs pg. 215, 3; Depeyrot 7/2 (same obverse die); Calicó 4445; Bastien, Donativa pg. 62; Cohen 54. Superb EF, high relief portrait. [See color enlargement on plate 19] ($7500)

The size, weight, and style of this aureus clearly are of post-reform type. As this coin must be dated to the third consulate of Diocletian, it serves as numismatic evidence for the theory that Diocletian's coinage reforms were enacted in two phases, with the first phase affecting the gold and silver coinage in the mid to late 280s (see D.H. Berry, "Diocletian's Reform of the Imperial Coinage," Seaby Coin & Medal Bulletin 762 (February 1982), pp. 52-53).