Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Æ28 - Augustus PERM CAESA AVG, Emerita
| Issuer | Colonia Augusta Emerita (Roman Colonial Mint) |
|---|---|
| Year | 27 BC - 14 AD |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Bronze |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Draped bust of a river goddess facing left, depicted in the act of spitting or emitting water from her mouth, a personification likely representing the Anas (Guadiana) river associated with the colony. The legend AVGVSTA EMERITA is disposed around the field in Latin characters within a dotted border, identifying the colonial foundation. The portrait is rendered in a provincial style characteristic of Augustan-era Hispanic colonial coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | AVGVSTA EMERITA (Translation: [colony of] Augusta Emerita) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Emerita Augusta — modern Mérida in Spain — was founded around 25 BC to settle veterans of the Cantabrian Wars, the brutal northwestern Iberian campaigns that were among the last major military operations Augustus conducted personally. The colony's mint produced coins locally, a privilege granted to relatively few western settlements, and these bronzes circulated as small change in a community built almost entirely from discharged legionaries of Legio V Alaudae and Legio X Gemina.
The abbreviated obverse legend PERM CAESA AVG — *permissu Caesaris Augusti*, "by permission of Caesar Augustus" — acknowledges that local coinage required imperial sanction, a formality that became increasingly enforced as Augustus consolidated monetary authority across the provinces.