As - Augustus P CARISIVS LEG AVGVSTI

Struck at the Spanish mint of Emerita Augusta — modern-day Mérida — this issue belongs to a series authorized under the legate P. Carisius, who governed Lusitania during the final phases of the Cantabrian Wars. Augustus had not yet received tribunicia potestas in perpetuity when these were struck, which places this issue in the precise constitutional gap between his first settlement with the Senate in 27 BC and his consolidation of power in 23 BC. Emerita itself had been founded just years earlier as a colony for veteran soldiers discharged from the V and X legions.