RPC I 1 is the opening entry in the entire Roman Provincial Coinage corpus — not because it was chosen arbitrarily, but because the editors placed Hispania first geographically and Augustus first chronologically, making this issue the literal starting point of the catalogue. The mint attribution remains contested; "uncertain Hispanic mint" has been the default for decades, with Emerita Augusta and various Lusitanian civic mints all proposed without resolution.
Augustus reorganized the Iberian provinces after Actium, and the surge of local bronze production that followed served immediate logistical needs — pay and supply for legions still pacifying the Cantabrian north.
RPC I 1 is the opening entry in the entire Roman Provincial Coinage corpus — not because it was chosen arbitrarily, but because the editors placed Hispania first geographically and Augustus first chronologically, making this issue the literal starting point of the catalogue. The mint attribution remains contested; "uncertain Hispanic mint" has been the default for decades, with Emerita Augusta and various Lusitanian civic mints all proposed without resolution.
Augustus reorganized the Iberian provinces after Actium, and the surge of local bronze production that followed served immediate logistical needs — pay and supply for legions still pacifying the Cantabrian north.