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Denarius - Augustus IOVI OLV
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
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| Year | 21 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.6 g |
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| Obverse description | Bare head of Augustus facing right, rendered in fine portrait style with naturalistic treatment of the hair falling in short layered locks across the forehead. The legend AVGVSTVS arcs along the left field. The portrait exhibits the idealized yet individualized Augustan aesthetic characteristic of official imperial coinage of the late 1st century BC. The flan is slightly irregular, as is typical of hammered silver issues of this period. |
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| Reverse description | A hexastyle temple depicted in three-quarter perspective, rendered with considerable architectural detail including a stepped podium, six columns supporting an ornate entablature, and a triangular pediment bearing a circular shield at its center. Palmette acroteria ornament the apex and corners of the pediment. The legend IOVI OLV is distributed in the field to either side of the temple structure, and a dot or mark appears in the exergue. The type celebrates the Temple of Jupiter Olympius and reflects Augustus's propagandistic association with Jupiter as divine patron. |
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This issue belongs to the Spanish mint production of Augustus's early reign — most likely Colonia Caesaraugusta (modern Zaragoza) or Emerita Augusta — struck during a period when the western provincial mints were handling much of the imperial coinage while Rome's own mint remained intermittently active. The IOVI OLV reverse type connects to Augustus's deliberate cultivation of Jupiter's favor as ideological backing for his new political order, particularly resonant in the years immediately following Actium and the constitutional settlements of 27 and 23 BC.
RIC I 472 is a relatively scarce Spanish-mint type; the series as a whole sees more collector attention than its survival rate might otherwise warrant.