Gemini, LLC >Auction >Auction II (11.01.2006)
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Gemini, LLC >Auction >Auction II (11.01.2006)
Lot :318
Price :30000 USD
Description
Nero. (54-68 AD). Orichalcum sestertius (27.56 gm). Rome, AD 64.
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM P M TR P IMP P P, head laureate left / S C, triumphal arch showing front and left side, surmounted by statue of Nero in facing quadriga between standing figures of Victory and Pax, large figure of Mars standing on pedestal on left side, wreath hanging within arch. BMCRE 190. MacDowall 95. RIC 150. Natural untouched olive green patina and with perhaps the finest rendering of the Arch of Nero. Choice extremely fine. The reverse probably depicts the triumphal arch voted to Nero in 58 for Corbulo's capture of the Armenian capital Artaxata, and erected on the Capitoline Hill (Tacitus, Annals, 13.41 and 15.18). No physical traces of this arch have survived. Our coin is apparently one of the earliest sestertii of the type struck at the mint of Rome, to judge from (1) the long form of obverse legend, with CLAVDIVS not CLAVD and GERM not GER, (2) the fine style and high relief of the portrait, and (3) the intricate rendering of the decoration on the arch, including several details which almost never appear on other dies. These exceptional details are: (a) The keystone of the arch is rendered in high relief and decorated with a standing figure. (b) A narrow relief band shows four human figures just below the attic on the left side of the arch. (c) TWO SIDES are shown of the plinth below the column at the left-hand edge of the type, each side decorated with a figure, apparently of Jupiter wielding thunderbolt and of a Giant raising one arm and with legs terminating in snakes. (d) On the right-hand edge of the type not one but two columns are shown, each resting on its own plinth, the one in the foreground (on right) overlapping the one in the background (on left). These two columns undoubtedly represent the two corner columns of the right-hand side of the arch, the second of which, however, should have been hidden from view in the perspective chosen! The plinth in foreground, on right, is decorated with a seated figure and a standing figure facing each other and raising arms as though in greeting, apparently with a seated captive between them. The plinth in background, a little to the left, shows Jupiter wielding a thunderbolt, like the left face of the plinth on the far left as described under (c). For another extraordinary early depiciton of this arch, with details sometimes matching but sometimes differing from those on our specimen, see Sternberg XII, 1984, 546, with exhaustive description on p. 66 and enlargement of reverse on Pl. XLII.
Estimate: US$15000
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