Denarius - Augustus S P Q R

This issue belongs to the coinage reforms Augustus undertook after 19 BC, when he assumed formal control over the mint and reorganized production at Lugdunum. The SPQR abbreviation on this type reflects his calculated use of Republican imagery — the Senate and People of Rome nominally authorizing the coinage — while actual monetary authority had been thoroughly consolidated under his personal direction. It was a fiction both parties found convenient.

RIC I 113A is associated with the Lugdunum mint's early output, before that facility fully supplanted Rome as the primary source of imperial silver.