I got this denarius in the mail yesterday. It's a bit porous but has plenty of nice detail. It is cataloged in Sear The History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators as 302a from southern or central Italian mint, late 40-early 39 BC. Obv. Bare head of Octavian right, with slight beard, CAESAR IMP around. Rev. Caduceus, ANTONINVS IMP clockwise around. From The History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators: "A remarkable feature of this entire series is the prominence accorded by Octavian to his triumviral colleague. Whereas Antony's coinage in celebration of the Brundisium agreement mentions his younger partner merely in a subsidiary role, Octavian strikes a derarius bearing Antony's portrait alone with his own name relegated to the reverse. Further, the quinarii give Antony's name precedence over that of Octavian. If, as seems likely, the coins were struck in Gaul then Octavian may have been adopting a deliberately conciliatory attitude in a region which had so recently been under the control of Antony's generals. All this should be taken as strong evidence of the dominant position still enjoyed by Antony at this time. That pre-eminence was to endure for several years more, but all the time the politically astute young Caesar was employing all his guile to strengthen his position at the expense of the older man and almost imperceptibly the balance of power began to shift." This little tidbits of history so closely connected to the coins is why I love this hobby.
I am not familiar with coinage of Augustus enough to comment on the style of the coin or the theme, but I will say it looks like a very appealing coin. Just don't ever drop it. Porous coins should be handled with love.
I will be extra careful with it but it looks pretty solid. Maybe it's more slightly pitted. It looks pretty good under a 5x loupe.
What is not to like, you have a very nice portrait of Augustus and Antony's name on the reverse. On top of that you have the great historical context. Nice acquisition, congrats.
Thanks Bing, yes it's my image that I did an hour ago and the color is correct or darn close to it. Maybe the coin has less brown/gold tone to it and maybe a bit more grey in hand. I bought it from a very reputable VCoins dealer.
My example of a slightly different variety of the OP coin, with reverse legend ANTONIVS IMP reading counter-clockwise rather than clockwise; CRI 302, rather than 302a:
I wasn't questioning the coin's authenticity. I never doubted it. Sometimes when I take pics, the images come out a little browning and not the true color. I think it's a matter lighting. BTW, I love your coin @Volodya
Nice coin. I will be looking for more coins in this little sub-set. I have my eye on the one with Antony's portrait as mentioned in the quote from the book.
that is a nice portrait coin and with marcs name on it. lipidus was a member of the triumvirate but didn't get his name on there. yes lots of history in these
Had Lepidus not been Pontifex Maximus, Augustus would have had him strangled instead of letting him retire from politics. Lepidus just wasn't as sharp as Augustus or Anthony. He had no one to blame but himself for being the footnote in the Triumvirate. * Sadly not my coin. Could be yours for 13K. You could kill Octavian and Lepidus with one stone (an expensive stone).