Quadrans - Claudius PON M TR P IMP COS DES IT

Claudius struck this quadrans in his first year as emperor, almost certainly as a practical acknowledgment that the lowest bronze denomination had fallen out of circulation under Caligula. The abbreviation PON M TR P IMP COS DES IT on the reverse is unusually compressed titulature for a quadrans, suggesting the issue was as much about reasserting imperial presence in everyday commerce as filling a genuine monetary gap.

RIC I 85 is one of several Claudian quadrantes distinguished by the absence of any portrait — a deliberate archaism harking back to Republican anonymous bronze.