This issue belongs to the so-called "Spanish" mint series struck around 19–18 BC, most likely at Colonia Caesaraugusta or Emerita — mints established to pay the legions engaged in the Cantabrian Wars, Rome's grinding final campaign to pacify the Iberian peninsula. Augustus was present in Spain from 26 BC and the mobile military mint followed the paymaster's needs, not a fixed workshop.
The S P Q R CL V reverse type references the clipeus virtutis, the golden shield voted to Augustus by the Senate in 27 BC, inscribed with the four virtues: virtus, clementia, iustitia, pietas. It was a political instrument as much as an honor — a carefully negotiated fiction that Augustus held power by consent rather than conquest.
This issue belongs to the so-called "Spanish" mint series struck around 19–18 BC, most likely at Colonia Caesaraugusta or Emerita — mints established to pay the legions engaged in the Cantabrian Wars, Rome's grinding final campaign to pacify the Iberian peninsula. Augustus was present in Spain from 26 BC and the mobile military mint followed the paymaster's needs, not a fixed workshop.
The S P Q R CL V reverse type references the clipeus virtutis, the golden shield voted to Augustus by the Senate in 27 BC, inscribed with the four virtues: virtus, clementia, iustitia, pietas. It was a political instrument as much as an honor — a carefully negotiated fiction that Augustus held power by consent rather than conquest.