See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration! or register with email

Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!

Denarius IVPPITER CVSTOS, Roma and Jupiter

Issuer Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD)
Year 68-69
Type Log in to see details
Value Log in to see details
Currency Log in to see details
Composition Log in to see details
Weight Log in to see details
Diameter Log in to see details
Thickness Log in to see details
Shape Log in to see details
Technique Log in to see details
Orientation Log in to see details
Engraver(s) Log in to see details
In circulation to Log in to see details
Reference(s) RIC I#59, OCRE#ric.1(2).cw.59
Obverse description Log in to see details
Obverse script Log in to see details
Obverse lettering Log in to see details
Reverse description Jupiter seated left on a throne, his upper body nude and a cloak draped over his lower limbs, holding a thunderbolt downward in his extended right hand and a long sceptre in his left. The composition emphasises the god's commanding, protective aspect as Custos — Guardian of Rome. The legend IVPPITER CVSTOS is inscribed in two lines across the field. The style reflects the emergency workshop production of the civil war period AD 68–69.
Reverse script Log in to see details
Reverse lettering Log in to see details
Edge Plain
Mint Log in to see details
Mintage Log in to see details
Additional information

This denarius belongs to one of the most chaotic twelve-month stretches in Roman history — the Year of the Four Emperors. Nero's suicide in June 68 AD triggered a succession crisis the Principate had never faced, and the mint at Rome briefly operated under shifting allegiances before Galba consolidated control. The IVPPITER CVSTOS type — Jupiter as guardian — was almost certainly a deliberate propaganda choice, invoking divine protection for an emperor whose grip on power was visibly insecure.

Galba was dead by January 69, killed by the Praetorian Guard in the Forum.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE