Denarius - Augustus MAR VLT, Mars

This denarius belongs to the coinage struck to celebrate the diplomatic recovery of the Roman standards lost by Crassus at Carrhae in 53 BC and by Antony in subsequent Parthian campaigns — a humiliation Rome had nursed for decades. Augustus secured their return in 20 BC through negotiation rather than force, then systematically promoted the event as a military triumph in all but name. The mint output of 18 BC falls squarely within that propaganda campaign.

RIC I 105A is among the types attributed to the Spanish mints at Colonia Patricia or Emerita, not Rome itself — a detail that occasionally surprises collectors expecting metropolitan fabric.