Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1366. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AUGUSTUS. 27 BC-14 AD. AR Denarius (4.00 g, 6h). Spanish mint (Colonia Caesaraugusta?). Struck circa 19-18 BC. Head right, wearing oak wreath / CAESAR AVGVSTVS, S P Q R above and below shield inscribed CL•V; laurel branches on either side. RIC I 36a; RSC 51; BMCRE 354 var. (laureate bust); BN -. Superb EF, attractive dark toning with red hues around the devices. ($3000)

Ex Leu 86 (5-6 May 2003), lot 740.

In the Res Gestae, Augustus records that the Senate, in giving him the title Augustus, also decreed that the doorposts of his house be officially decorated with laurel, that the corona civica be placed over the door, and that a shield be displayed in the Curia Iulia. This shield, or clipeus, had been dedicated to him by the Senate and the Roman People on account of his virtues of bravery, clemency, justice, and piety; virtues which were inscribed on the shield itself. Copies of it were then set up all over the Roman world. The return in 19 BC of the Roman standards captured by the Parthians in earlier conflicts offered an excellent opportunity to once again recall Augustus' pietas, one of the vitues recorded on the clipeus.