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Aureus - Augustus SIGNIS RECEPTIS CL V S P Q R
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
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| Year | 19 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Bare head of Augustus facing left, rendered in fine engraved portrait style typical of Augustan coinage. The emperor's features are idealized yet naturalistic, with close-cropped hair rendered in individual strands swept forward across the brow. The legend is divided on either side of the portrait within the field, reading CAESAR to the left and AVGVSTVS to the right. The truncation of the neck is clean, and the portrait is set within the coin's characteristic irregular flan. |
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| Obverse script | Latin |
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The SIGNIS RECEPTIS type commemorates one of Augustus's most celebrated diplomatic achievements: the return of the Roman standards lost at Carrhae in 53 BC, where Crassus and some 20,000 legionaries were destroyed by the Parthians. The recovery came not through military force but through negotiation in 19 BC — a fact Augustus's propaganda machinery worked hard to obscure, framing the event as a conquest. The Senate voted a triumphal arch in his honor, though Augustus declined the triumph itself, a calculated gesture of Republican modesty.
RIC I 85B is one of several closely related types from this propaganda moment, likely struck at the Pergamum or Spanish mint rather than Rome.