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Roman Emp., Pertinax, Aureus 193

Currency:CHF Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Ancient Start Price:28,000.00 CHF Estimated At:35,000.00 - 43,750.00 CHF
Roman Emp., Pertinax, Aureus 193
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The Roman Empire, Pertinax, January 1st – March 28th 193, Aureus 1st January-March 28th 193, AV 7.18 g. IMP CAES P HELV – PERTIN AVG Laureate and draped bust r. Rev. OPI DI – VIN – TR P COS II Ops seated l., holding two corn ears. C 32 var. (laureate only). BMC 18 note. RIC 8b. Kent-Hirmer pl. 107, 368. Calicó 2386. Very rare. A bold portrait perfectly struck in high relief on a full flan, good extremely fine Ex NAC sale 21, 2001, 492. Of the five men proclaimed emperor in the civil war that raged from 193 to 197, Helvius Pertinax was perhaps the most admirable and deserving. Born in north-west Italy the son of a timber merchant, Pertinax was a self-made man who abandoned a career in teaching to join the army. His talents must have been exceptional, for he gained powerful friends attached to the family of Marcus Aurelius, married the daughter of an ex-consul, and by his early 50s this son of a freedman was adlected into the senate. The reverse of this aureus shows Ops, the personification of wealth. It is an unusual choice for any emperor, and she was used only one other time, by Antoninus Pius. Here she may relate to events of the day since she holds grain ears and one of Pertinax’s first priorities was to travel to Ostia to oversee the grain supply; indeed he only rushed back to Rome upon learning the praetorian guards were attempting to replace him with the new Consul, Q. Sosius Falco.