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Sestertius - Nero ROMA S C, Roma and Victory

Issuer Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD)
Year 62-68
Type Standard circulation coin
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Obverse description Laureate bust of Nero facing right, with fleshy features characteristic of his later portraiture, rendered in high relief with carefully detailed hair arranged in the Julio-Claudian style with layered curls across the forehead. The neck is broad and the portrait conveys the mature, idealized likeness favored during his reign. The encircling legend is incuse in bold Roman capitals distributed around the full circumference of the coin. The die work reflects the skilled craftsmanship of the Rome mint during the Neronian period.
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Obverse lettering IMP NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GER P M TR PPP
(Translation: Imperator Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestas, Pater Patriae. Supreme commander (Imperator) Nero Claudius Caesar, emperor (Augustus), victor over the Germans, high priest, tribunician power, father of the country.)
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Additional information

Nero's sestertii from this period were struck at Rome under the reformed bronze coinage he introduced in 64 AD, which sharply increased the size and weight standards for aes coinage — a deliberate assertion of imperial control over the currency that had been degraded under his predecessors. The quality of die engraving during this phase is among the finest in the first century, a direct consequence of Nero's well-documented personal investment in the arts extending even into the mint.

The ROMA S C reverse type connects to Nero's ambitious rebuilding program following the great fire of 64 AD, in which Roma as a personification was deployed propagandistically across multiple coin types to reframe destruction as renewal. RIC I#335 falls within the later bracket of his reign, when the mint was producing at high volume ahead of the civil war that would follow his death in 68 AD.

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