191
The Last Collectible Denarius
3231
Aurelian. “Silver” Denarius (2.4 g), AD 270-275.
Very scarce.
Rome, AD 275. IMP AVRELI-ANVS AVG, laureate and cuirassed
bust of Aurelian right.
Reverse:
VICT-O-RI-A AVG, Victory ad-
vancing left, holding wreath and palm; A. RIC 73; BN 243. Virtu-
ally as struck with silver wash still present.
Nearly Mint State.
Estimated Value ............................................................$400 - 500
Ex New York Sale XX (7-8 January 2009), 445.
3232
Carausius. Silver Denarius (3.98 g), Romano-British Emper r, AD 287-
293.
London, ca. AD 287. IMP I CARAVSIVS P F AVG, laureate, draped
and cuirassed bust of Carausius right.
Reverse:
RENOVAT ROMANO, she-
wolf standing right, suckling the twins Romulus and Remus; RSR (Rs retro-
grade). Cf. RIC 571; cf. Shiel 68; cf. RSC 82.
Very Rare
. Toned.
Extremely
Fine.
Carausius was the commander of the Roman fleet stationed in the Eng-
lish Channel who usurped power, gaining control over Britain and of part
of Gaul. While the vast majority of his coin types were debased anto-
niniani as circulated in the official Empire, he also struck aurei and sil-
ver denarii of very high purity, the likes of which had not been seen for
many years. The legends and types of his denarii, as is the case with
the the coin offered here showing the she-wolf and twins motif com-
bined with the legend RENOVAT ROMANO, evoked traditional Roman
virtues. This of course is highly interesting coming from a province at
the edge of the Roman world, but it clearly espouses Carausius’ ideol-
ogy that he was in fact restoring Rome and not simply another military
opportunist as had beset the Roman Empire for the past half century.
Of more novel interest is the abbreviation RSR in the exergue. This had
always been assumed to be a mintmark, the precise meaning never
satisfactorily resolved. However, it turns out that it is not actually a mint-
mark at all! Guy de la Bédoyère, “Carausius, RSR and I.N.P.C.D.A,” NC
1998, pp. 79-88, shows a Virgilian connection, the RSR being an ab-
breviation for Redeunt Saturnia regna, and INPCDA found on other
Carausian coins the abbreviation for Iam nova progenies, cælo De-
mittitur alto. These phrases come from the sixth and seventh lines of
Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue on the Golden Age, and translate “now Vir-
gin Justice returns, and Saturn’s reign: now a new race descends
from the heavens above.” Any educated person in the Roman world
would have recognized the abbreviation; thus it played perfectly into
Carausius’s clearly-defined ideology of restoring the virtues of Rome.
Estimated Value .......................................................................$4,000 - 5,000
Ex Helios 4 (14 October 2009), 694; A. Lynn Collection; CNG 54 (14 June
2000), 1792.
End of Denarii Collection
