Ancient and World Coins

Roman Imperial Coinage, Augustus, Aureus, uncertain mint, c. 27-18 BC, laureate bust right in Hellenistic style, caesar, rev. avgvstvs, heifer slowly pacing left, 7.96g (Kent-Hirmer p.127, this coin; Calicó 169, this coin; Rambach and Walker, SNR 91, 2012, p.50, 2.1, O5/R5). Extremely fine with original bloom, extremely rare £300,000-350,000

Provenance: Bank Leu Auktion 57 (Zurich), 25 May 1993, lot 210; Numismatic Fine Arts Auction 22 (Beverly Hills), 1 June 1989, lot 28.

The exact date and mint of this magnificent aureus are unknown as there is no find evidence. There has been much scholarly speculation over this remarkable series, for which several dates and mints have been suggested: Eastern mint, 27-20 BC (Mattingly, BMC 1923, 660-1); Eastern mint, 20 BC (Hill, Monuments 1989, 126); uncertain mint, after c. 27 BC (Sutherland, RIC 1984, 536-8, and Giard, CBN 1007-8).

The obverse displays a new portrait befitting the new title of Cæsar Augustus, as he was now officially known, unlike anything to be found in the severe qualities of late Republican portraiture and expressing an image of himself as ‘Augustus’. The new image transformed the youthful Octavian into an ageless Apollo-like classical beauty, with a calm, elevated expression of timeless remote dignity according to the canon of classical symmetry, characterised by Polyclitan sculpture, considered at the time as the highest achievement in the rendering of the human figure. The portrait reproduced on this coin is of the same style as that of the celebrated statue of Augustus from the Villa Livia at Prima Porta, now in the Vatican. 

The reverse type recalls the occasion in 28 BC when Octavian dedicated the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, noted for having, in its central atrium, the Area Apollinis, an altar with four Greek statues of heifers by the celebrated 5th century BC sculptor Myron of Eleutheræ (Buculae Myronis). One of these statues may well have served as a model for this most artistic of Roman coins, a type repeated on the occasion when the statues were transferred by Vespasian to his new temple of Pax, completed in AD 75 (cf. RIC II, Vespasian 840, and Hill, The Monumenta of Ancient Rome as Coin Types, p.73, figs. 126-7.

In 27 BC the Senate bestowed upon the title of Augustus on the young Octavian, who had until then conducted state business under the title of Caesar Divi f. The adjective Augustus was a brilliant choice with a broad range of meanings, including ‘stately’, ‘dignified’ and ‘holy’, from the verb augere (increase) and recalls augur, the priest who interprets omens. So successful was this piece of public relations that the Senate proceeded to rename the month Sextlis to Augustus, immortalised in the Western calendar as August.
 
The splendid and unusual reverse type certainly copies a masterpiece of bronze sculpture by the Greek sculptor Myron, which is not known today. But this series of aureii is especially distinctive by its Hellenistic portraiture - probably the best portrait on any Roman coin.

There are five varieties within the series. Augustus is depicted with a bare head (types 1 and 5), or with a laureate head (types 2, 3 and 4). On the former the bust always faces to the right. On the latter, it can be facing right (type 2) or left (types 3 and 4). Types 1, 2 and 3 show the heifer facing left, types 4 and 5 to the right.

Taking all five varieties together, 22 examples are known, of which 15 are in institutional collections:
12 examples are known of type 1, 9 in museums (London [2], Lyon, Naples, Paris [3], Utrecht, Vienna).
1 example is known of type 2, which is the specimen offered here.
3 examples are known of type 3, 2 in museums (Paris, St Petersburg).
5 examples are known of type 4, 4 in museums (Boston, Brussels, London, Rome).
1 example is known of type 5, NAC 41 (2007), lot 37