As - Augustus ROM ET AVG, altar of Gauls

This as belongs to the Lugdunum altar series, struck at the colony of Lyon to supply coinage across the northwestern provinces rather than circulate in Rome itself. The Altar of the Three Gauls — the *Ara Romae et Augusti* — had been dedicated in 12 BC by Drusus, Augustus's stepson, as a deliberate instrument of Gallic pacification: sixty tribes were required to send annual delegations and recognize Roman and Augustan cult simultaneously. The mint at Lugdunum operated directly beneath imperial supervision, bypassing the senatorial control that governed Rome's own bronze issues, which is why these lack the SC countermark.