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Aureus - Caligula S P Q R PP OB CS
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
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| Year | 40 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Bare-necked, laureate bust of Emperor Caligula (Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus) facing right, rendered with individualistic portraiture characteristic of early Julio-Claudian coinage. The effigy displays a fleshy, youthful face with sharply defined features, the laurel wreath clearly visible upon the short-cropped hair. The neck is truncated at the base, with no drapery. The surrounding circular legend in Latin reads continuously around the periphery of the flan. |
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| Obverse lettering | C CAESAR AVG PON M TR POT III COS III (Translation: Caius Caesar Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate Tertia, Consul Tertius. Gaius Caesar, emperor (Augustus), high priest, holder of tribunician power for the third time, consul for the third time.) |
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Caligula struck this aureus following his serious illness of 37 AD, from which he emerged politically transformed — paranoid, erratic, and increasingly hostile to the Senate. The reverse legend references the honorary title *Pater Patriae* and the Senate's formal expressions of loyalty, gestures that within a few years rang hollow as relations between emperor and senate collapsed entirely. He was assassinated in January 41 AD, making the entire gold coinage of his reign compressed into roughly three years of production.