298 | Roman Empire

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NERO. Golden. (Aug. 7.66g/19mm). 58-59 AD Lugdunum. (RIC 22). Obv: Head of Nero right, around legend: NERO CAESAR AVG IMP. Rev: Legend: EX Uncirculated, within laurel wreath, around legend: PONTIF MAX TR PVP P. Good Extremely Fine. Remnants of original shine. Light scratches, in our opinion, insignificant on the reverse. Beautiful specimen, very rare in this spectacular quality.

The Gallic colony of Lugdunum, an imperial mint since the time of Augustus, was responsible, together with Rome, for issuing imperial coins. In Nero's time, coins were minted following the types previously used in Rome, in issues always under senatorial authority. Nero's coins are probably the best example of realism in the minting of imperial portraits; thus we can see from an emperor with an angelic face in his younger stage to an emperor with a puffy and thick face in the broadcasts close to his death. This golden coin, minted when the emperor was around twenty years old, shows us a middle ground, appearing as a young man with friendly features, looking to the right and whose bare head tries to represent an austere and “constitutional” emperor.