Gemini III, January 9th, 2007



                  Lot # 402 - Auction is closed.Estimate: US$10000 / Price 
                  Realized: US$27500 
                  Marcus Aurelius as Caesar. Gold aureus 



             



            Marcus Aurelius as Caesar. (138-161 AD). Gold aureus (7.25 gm). 
            Rome, 149-150 AD. AVRELIVS - CAESAR AVG PII F, bare-headed, draped 
            bust right, seen from front / PIETAS TR POT III COS II, Pietas 
            standing left, with two children; she extends her right hand over a 
            girl, draped and with long hair gathered behind in a small knot, who 
            stands left at her feet, looking up at Pietas and extending her 
            right arm; Pietas carries the second child, a facing naked boy, in 
            her left arm. Cohen 443 (80 Fr., citing Caylus). BMCRE p. 101 
            (citing Cohen). RIC 449. Calico 1882 (without illustration). 
            Apparently unique, the aureus in Paris having been melted down after 
            the notorious robbery of 1831. Possessing a fantastic portrait, 
            struck in ultra high relief. Exquisite detail on both obverse and 
            reverse. Combining great rarity, a historical reverse type, great 
            art and wonderful condition, and hence one of the most desirable 
            Marcus Aurelius aurei in existence. Mint state. 

            The former Paris aureus of these types is known only from Cohen’s 
            description and from a schematic drawing of its reverse type in 
            Caylus’ work of c.1760 on the Roman gold coins in the French royal 
            collection, pl. 26, 537. Strack (Antoninus Pius, p. 351, no. 108) 
            could find no existing specimen of this aureus, but did not doubt 
            that the Paris specimen had been authentic and was correctly 
            described, since the same reverse type occurs on rare sestertii and 
            dupondii of Marcus Caesar. Our coin not only confirms the existence 
            of the type in gold, but adds an important fact to the historical 
            record: Marcus Aurelius’ second child, a boy, whose birth is 
            evidently recorded in this reverse type, must have been born early 
            in Marcus’ third tribunician year, since the obverse die of our 
            aureus had already been used during his preceding second tribunician 
            year, BMCRE pl. 13.19. The same birth is apparently commemorated by 
            the type of two heads of children emerging from crossed cornucopias 
            on coins of Antoninus Pius dated TR P XII, but so far no evidence 
            has emerged to show exactly when in the course of the year that type 
            was struck. A study of the numismatic evidence for the births and 
            deaths of the children of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina II during the 
            reign of Antoninus Pius, with many new proposals, is being prepared 
            by C. Clay. 




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  ... Lot 402 sold for high bid of $27500 [ $31625, or approx 24446.125 EUR, 16128.75 GBP including the 15% buyers fee.] 


Re-used by permission of Harlan J Berk (www.harlanjberk.com) and
                         Freeman & Sear (www.freemanandsear.com)