24 Assēs - Nero and Claudius ... C IT ...

This denomination sits in an unusual interregnum of Neronian monetary policy. By the late 50s AD, Nero had not yet enacted his famous currency debasement — that came with the reform of 64 AD, which reduced the silver content of the denarius and trimmed its weight. Coins struck in this earlier window therefore carry a fineness that his later issues cannot match. The "Claudius" component of the obverse legend reflects Nero's deliberate invocation of his adoptive father's name as a legitimizing device, a rhetorical habit he quietly dropped as his reign grew more autocratic.