Sestertius - Nero ROMA S C, Roma and Victory

Nero's sestertii from this period were struck as the emperor embarked on an aggressive building program following the Great Fire of 64 AD, which destroyed much of Rome and gave him the pretext — or opportunity, depending on one's reading of Tacitus — to rebuild the city along grander lines. The mint output surged to fund reconstruction and the vast expenditure of the Domus Aurea.

RIC 329 falls within a sequence issued from the Rome mint during the latter half of Nero's reign, when his coinage achieved some of the finest bronze work of the early imperial period. The broad, flat flan was a deliberate policy choice under Nero, maximizing die impression quality.