Denarius - Caligula and Augustus DIVVS AVG PATER PATRIAE

Caligula issued this denarius in 37–38 AD, early in his reign, pairing his own authority with the deified Augustus in a calculated bid for dynastic legitimacy — he had no military record and a thin claim to popular confidence beyond his father Germanicus's name. The DIVVS AVG PATER PATRIAE reverse explicitly frames Augustus as the father of the fatherland, a title Caligula himself would later demand with considerably less patience for those who hesitated to grant it.

RIC I 31 is among the better-documented types of Caligula's coinage, struck at Rome before his increasingly erratic behavior disrupted court and administration alike.