Imagery of Power

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 754. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $8500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Diocletian. AD 284-305. AV Aureus (5.64 g, 7h). Rome mint. Post-reform, struck AD 293-294. DIOCLETIA-NVS P F AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / IOVI FVL-GE-RAT-ORI, Jupiter advancing left, head right, brandishing thunderbolt in raised right hand; an anguipede giant to right; PR. RIC V 146 corr. (rev. legend misspelled); Lukanc 15; Depeyrot 5A/1; Calicó 4531 (same dies as illustration); Cohen 285. Superb EF, lightly toned, a tiny mark on obverse edge. Bold portrait.

Ex Leu 93 (10 May 2005), lot 116.

The Roman Empire utilized coins as a means of political propaganda more successfully than any other empire in all of history. On this particular coin the message is that the enemies of Diocletian, represented by the serpent-legged giant rising from the ground, are no match for the powerful protector Jupiter, patron god of Diocletian.