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Roman Empire. Commodus. Aureus 186-187, AV 7.25g.

Currency:CHF Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Ancient Start Price:19,200.00 CHF Estimated At:24,000.00 CHF
Roman Empire. Commodus. Aureus 186-187, AV 7.25g.
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The Roman Empire. Commodus augustus, 177–192. Aureus 186-187, AV 7.25g. M COMM ANT P–FEL AVG BRIT Laureate and cuirassed bust r. Rev. P M TR P–XI MP VIII COS V P Galley, with full sail, going r., steersman and two soldiers within; below, PROVID AVG. C –. BMC –. RIC –. Calicó 2316b (this coin). An apparently unrecorded variety of this interesting and very rare type. Smoothed surface, otherwise about extremely fine. Ex Triton IV, 2000, 590 and NAC 24, 2002, 119 sales. Ships are not uncommon on Roman coins, but usually they are associated with military activities or the journeys of the emperor. In this case we have a commercial vessel, which is essentially identical to a commercial ship depicted on the famous mosaics of Tunis in the Sousse Museum. This coinage was struck to commemorate the creation of a new grain fleet in 186, an action that in the reverse inscription Commodus attributes to his own providentia. A gifted, if not paranoid emperor, Commodus went to great expense to build this new fleet to assure there would be grain shipments from Carthage in the event the usual supply from Egypt was disabled. This particular aureus seems to be unpublished as it is dated to the emperor’s eleventh tribunician. Another aureus of this issue, in the Du Chastel collection and struck from the same dies, is dated to the twelfth tribunician, as are all the sestertii of this issue. It is possible that this reverse die originally was engraved TR P XI in error, and subsequently corrected to the proper TR P XII, but not before some aurei were struck and released.