Countermarked Contemporary Counterfeit of C. Cassius Celer Dupondius of Augustus

You heard me. Here's one for the annals of oddballs. This one took some sleuthing, but I finally unlocked it. The moneyer C. Cassius Celer made some sestertii and dupondii for Augustus of this type...



Celer's dupondii are on the light side compared to other moneyers of the period, around 9-10g. Also, ALL of the dupondii of this type, regardless of moneyer, have the obverse inscription AVGVSTVS TRIBVNIC POTEST. My coin came in very light, at 6.2 grams with the abbreviation AVGVST TRIBVN POTEST. I searched high and low for this type in a lower denomination with curtailed legend, but came up empty handed. Then I discovered that there do exist underweight imitations of Celer's bronzes, and I realized I was dealing with an unofficial issue: a lightweight imitation of the above posted dupondius, RIC I 375, with abbreviated obverse inscription.

Not only is the coin an imitative bronze of Augustus, but it has three clear, bold countermarks, AVG, M, and TICA. Howgego suggests one meaning of TICA could be Titus Caesar, but I think Tiberius Caesar Augustus is also a possibility. He also reports that many coins counter-marked TICA are found in Bulgaria. My search also discovered several official issues of Celer with the two of the same counter-marks. The M is a mystery to me.

I love puzzles and this one was quite satisfying - it had my head buried in the books and online catalogs for a good hour.



The reverse legend clarified as part of C CASSIVS CELER III VIR A A A FF

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Interesting coin!

 

Ditto. More information to try to find a corner in my old brain.

 

what a weird but cool coin!

 

It's fun chasing these things down.