Denarius - Augustus S P Q R CL V, Victory

This issue belongs to a group struck at a mobile military mint traveling with Augustus — most likely in Spain or Gaul — rather than at Rome itself. The "S P Q R / CL V" reverse legend references the clipeus virtutis, the golden shield voted to Augustus by the Senate in 27 BC in recognition of his virtus, clementia, iustitia, and pietas. It was a carefully engineered piece of political theater: Augustus refused the title of dictator, so the Senate invented new honors instead.

RIC I 47B is distinguished from the closely related 47A by its reverse type. Both are products of the same mobile mint phase, roughly contemporary with Augustus's diplomatic recovery of the Parthian standards lost at Carrhae in 53 BC — an event that generated an extraordinary volume of coinage.