Denarius - Augustus CAESARI AVGVSTO

This issue dates to the period immediately following Augustus's return from the eastern provinces in 19 BC, when the Senate voted him a triumphal arch and a series of honorific privileges he conspicuously declined. The RIC I 98 type is associated with the Spanish mints — most likely Colonia Patricia — which Augustus deployed heavily during this decade to pay troops and finance the ongoing Cantabrian campaigns. Rome's own mint was largely dormant for silver at this point.

The Spanish workshop attribution remains debated among specialists, with some preferring a traveling military mint hypothesis.