85, Lot: 88. Estimate $150. Sold for $226. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AUGUSTUS. 27 BC-14 AD. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.33 gm). Rome mint. Struck 19 BC by Q. Rustius. Helmeted and draped bust of Fortuna Victrix, holding patera, and diademed and draped bust of Fortuna Felix right, conjoined, set on bar with ram's head finials / Ornamented altar inscribed FOR RE. RIC I 322; RSC 513. VF, minor porosity. Rare.

The recurring references to Fortuna celebrate Augustus' safe return from a trip to the east in 19 BC, when an altar was erected by the Senate at Porto Capena, and the statues probably representing a monument sponsored by the moneyer himself. The ram appears on denarii of L. Rustius in 74 BC and is apparently a family crest. In RSC and RIC the obverse is described as busts above a bar or base with two ram's heads, but there is clearly another pair of ram's heads behind the front set, indicating they are the corners of a square platform on which the statues were placed.