Decentius. Caesar, AD 350/1-353. AV Solidus (25mm, 3.96 g, 7h). Treveri (Trier) mint. Struck AD 353.

Triton XXV
Lot: 1011. Estimated: $ 20 000

Roman Imperial, Coin-in-Hand Video, Gold

Sold For $ 26 000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

Decentius. Caesar, AD 350/1-353. AV Solidus (25mm, 3.96 g, 7h). Treveri (Trier) mint. Struck AD 353. D N DECENTI VS FORT CAES, bare-headed, draped and cuirassed bust right / VICT AVG LIB ROM ORB, Victory standing right; Libertas holding transverse scepter in left hand, standing left, supporting a trophy between them; Victory’s right hand supports the shaft above that of Libertas’. Unpublished in the standard references. Underlying luster, areas of flat strike, edge lightly grazed on obverse. EF. A seemingly unique and highly interesting obverse legend variety.

Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 111 (24 September 2018), lot 245.

Decentius, the brother of the usurper Magnentius, was appointed as Caesar with the responsibility of guarding Gaul and repulsing any attacks by Germanic tribes while Magnentius was on campaign against Constantius II. Despite Magnentius’s defeat by Constantius II at Mursa Major and setbacks in Gaul with the rebellion of Chnodomar, Decentius retained power in Gaul and attempted to rally the remaining forces against Constantius II. This unpublished solidus was struck at Decentius’s capitol of Treveri in AD 353, likely as part of a donative to his soldiers that was intended to raise the morale of his demoralized troops and steel them for a final confrontation with Constantius II. What makes this coin unique is its obverse legend: here the normal NOB CAES (noble Caesar) has been replaced with FORT CAES (strong or brave Caesar). While a seemingly minute difference, it seems to have been chosen to portray Decentius as a strong military leader to his soldiers as he prepared them for the coming battle with Constantius II that would decide both his and his brother’s fate.

The final winners of all Triton XXV lots will be determined at the live public sale that will be held on 11-12 January 2022. Triton XXV – Session Three – Roman Republican & Imperatorial Coinage through Byzantine Coinage will be held Wednesday morning, 12 January 2022 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 20% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 22.50% for all others.

We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and the stable previous version of Mozilla Firefox and Chrome.