Catalog
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!
Sestertius - Augustus C I P IIIIVIR
| Issuer | Colony of Iulia Pia Paterna (Africa Proconsularis) |
|---|---|
| Year | 10 |
| 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) | I#760 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Mercury, wearing his characteristic winged petasus and depicted in a draped figure, is shown seated left upon a rock, holding the caduceus in his right hand. The composition reflects the Hellenistic iconographic tradition of Mercury as divine patron of commerce, appropriate for a prosperous North African colonial city. The Latin colonial legend is arranged in the field, identifying the issuing magistrates. The flan shows characteristic irregular edges and a dark green patina consistent with long-buried provincial bronze. |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Iulia Pia Paterna was a Roman colony in Africa Proconsularis, almost certainly to be identified with Sicca Veneria — modern Le Kef in northwestern Tunisia — though the attribution has been contested in the literature. Colonial bronze issues of this kind were autonomous civic productions, struck under the authority of local magistrates rather than the imperial mint, which explains the quattuorviral legends. The IIIIVIR formula denotes the four magistrates responsible for the emission.
Augustus never standardized colonial bronze coinage across the western provinces; what survives is the product of individual cities exercising residual civic prerogatives. Weight variation across specimens of this type is considerable.