Found in Monmouthshire From a Period of Engaging History
574. Nero. AD 54-68. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.70 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 56-57. NERO • CAESAR • AVG • IMP •, bare head right / PONTIF • MAX • TR • P • III•· P P • around oak wreath enclosing EX • S C. RIC I 11; Calicó 421; BMCRE 12-3; BN 11; Biaggi 229. Good VF, brushed, some marks and a small metal flaw on head. Handsome youthful portrait. ($4000) Found near Usk, Monmouthshire in the late 1990s and recorded by Rodney Hudson at Newport Museum (with ticket in his hand). In circa AD 55, the Twentieth Legion, Valeria Victrix, was moved to Burrium, (present day Usk) to control the restive local tribe, the Silures. Burrium was the first Roman fortress in Wales. While stationed there the Twentieth took part in the defeat of the Ordovices tribe and the invasion of the island of Anglesey, the center of British Druidism. Subsequently detachments from the Legion fought at Watling Street in the great battle that brought to a bloody end the revolt of Boudica. In AD 66, the Twentieth was sent to Viroconium (Wroxeter) and Burrium was abandoned. See also lot 571 for another aureus found near Usk.
British Museum Nero
575. Nero. AD 54-68. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.53 g, 4h). Rome mint. Struck AD 63-64. Bare head right / Virtus standing left, holding parazonium and scepter, foot on helmet among shields. RIC I 41; BMCRE 48 (this coin); RSC 233. VF, darkly toned, some scratches under tone, edge marks and a small bend. ($500) Deaccessioned from the British Museum by exchange on 14 February 1980 (a copy of a note from R. A. G Carson, documenting the exchange, will be provided to the winner of this lot upon request).
Imperial Rather than Senatorial Issue
576. Nero. AD 54-68. Æ Sestertius (36.5mm, 31.03 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 63-64. Laureate bust right, wearing aegis / Annona standing right, holding cornucopia, facing Ceres seated left, holding grain ears and torch; between them, modius on garlanded altar, ship’s stern in background. Cf. RIC I 139/98 (for obv./rev.); cf. WCN 104/71 (for obv./rev.); Gnecchi III, 10 (pl. 141, 6); CNR XVIII 597. VF, green patina, collection number in field on reverse, minor roughness. Struck on an impressive, oversized flan. Rare without S C on reverse. ($2000) Ex Vecchi 4 (5 December 1996), lot 114. Banti states that “For this period it is thought that the bronze without S C was minted by an imperial mint... The portraits are almost all youthful” (CNR XVII, p. 139).
160