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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Aethelred, post: 2552691, member: 81808&quot;]I won this in the CNG auction that ended today. To me (your opinion may vary) if you wanted one single coin to represent the Roman Empire you would want a Sestertius of Nero. They were large, their size gave the engravers room to showcase their talents in a way that smaller coins did not and how can you not just be impressed by a big hunk of bronze from one of the most evil rulers in history?</p><p><br /></p><p>When I post these things I usually give a brief history of the emperor and his time, but I think most of us know at least some details from Nero&#039;s life. He became Emperor inn AD 54 when his mother murdered his step father Claudius Caesar, he murdered his step brother Britannicus because &quot;A second Caesar is a Caesar too many.&quot; He went on to kill his mother in AD 59, all of this killing before his real reign or terror began around AD 64-65. In the end he was declared a public enemy by the Senate and fled, taking his own life in a shameful manner in AD 68.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin is a bronze Sestertius struck at the Lugdunum mint in AD 65. It is a whopping 36mm in diameter with a weight of 26g. Because of its size I can&#039;t help wondering it it might have been issued as a presentation piece of some kind? The reverse shows the emperor on horseback with a soldier behind him. The legend &quot;DECVRSIO&quot; on the reverse is a reference to a mounted military advance, but according to Seth Stevenson in his 1889 &quot;Dictionary of Roman Coins&quot; may have been issued to mark Nero&#039;s establishment of cavalry drills amongst the Pretorians.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cngcoins.com/photos/enlarged/3850490.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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