Denarius - Augustus IMP XII

The IMP XII tribunician dating places this denarius in 11–10 BC, a period when Augustus had recently lost his general and son-in-law Agrippa — dead in March of 12 BC — and was consolidating the dynastic succession around his stepsons Tiberius and Drusus, both then on campaign. The Lugdunum mint, which struck the bulk of Augustan silver from around 15 BC onward after Rome's own silver production wound down, would have produced this piece as part of the sustained output needed to pay legions stationed along the Rhine and Danube frontiers.

RIC 178B is distinguished from the closely related 178A by its reverse die pairing — a distinction that matters primarily to specialists working the Lyon hoard material.