|
Galba. AD 68-69. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.57 g, 6h). Uncertain Spanish mint (Tarraco?). Struck circa April to late AD 68. SER • GΛLBΛ • IMP • CAESΛR • ΛVG P M TR • P, laureate head right, globe at point of neck / LIBERTAS PVBLICA, Libertas, draped, standing left, holding pileus in right hand and vindicta in left. RIC I 56; CSB 34; Calicó 484 (this coin illustrated); BMCRE p. 339, note 176; BN –; Biaggi 258 (this coin). Several marks in fields, faint edge marks. Near EF. The only example of the type in CoinArchives. Very rare.
From the PLZ Collection. Ex Leo Biaggi de Blasys Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica 49, 21 October 2008), lot 147; Münzen und Medaillen AG XXI (19 March 1960), lot 27.
An excellent portrait of the gruff, dour Galba as he must have appeared to his subjects. Great provenance. (PLZ)
Servius Sulpicius Galba, born in 3 BC into a wealthy family, would hold positions of importance through his early career. He was known to be close with Livia, wife of Augustus and to whom Galba claimed distant relations. He would retire from public life during the reign of Claudius. Nero would later restore his political importance with the granting of the governorship of Hispania. It is while in this role that Galba joined Gaius Julius Vindex in revolt against Nero, the very man who summoned him back in public life.
The rebellion would see Vindex defeated and his subsequent suicide. Nevertheless, Nero lost his nerve and his regime abruptly collapsed, leaving Galba to be acclaimed as emperor by the Senate after Nero’s death. His rule lasted only seven months and was never comfortable. From the start his unpopular decisions, alleged cruelty and legendary parsimony, alienated his supporters and further distanced his detractors. In the end, he was a man with hardly any support, even from his closest advisors.
The end for Galba began when the troops of Germania Inferior refused to support his rule and instead declared for their own governor, Aulus Vitellius. Ironically, like Nero placing Galba in Hispania, it was Galba himself who sent Vitellius to Germania Inferior. The revolt, plus his refusal to pay the Praetorians a heavy bonus, prompted a cascading series of events that led to Galba’s murder by his erstwhile guardians in the Roman Forum on January 15, AD 69. The acerbic verdict of Tacitus was that Galba “was commonly agreed to possess the makings of a great ruler— had he never ruled.”
His portrait on coinage has a couple of unique styles but his countenance is always stern and unfriendly in appearance. The portrait seen here, from Tarraco in Spain, is exceptional in its realism and this coin is surely at the top tier of surviving examples of Galba in gold. This is truly an exceptional coin from a leader whose reign was, perhaps deservedly, brief.
The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 132 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 18-19 May 2026.
CNG Feature Auction 132 – Session One – Lot 1-318 will be held Monday morning, 18 May 2026 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% 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 stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
|
