Quinarius Aureus - Tiberius TR POT XXXVI, Victoria

The quinarius aureus — struck at half the weight of a standard aureus — was minted only sporadically under the early empire, and Tiberius produced them in notably small quantities. This piece, dated to his thirty-sixth tribunician year, falls within a reign defined by the emperor's self-imposed retirement to Capri, where he had withdrawn in 26 AD and never returned to Rome. The actual business of the mint and much of imperial administration ran through the senate and, increasingly, the praetorian prefect Sejanus — until Sejanus was executed in 31 AD, three years before this coin was struck.

RIC I 20 is among the scarcer Tiberian gold types, reflecting the limited issue of the quinarius denomination rather than any particular production interruption.