In the mail today: IMP CAES M AVREL ANTONINVS AVG P M - Bare headed bust of Marcus Aurelius right, with light drapery on his left shoulder CONCORD AVGVSTOR TR P XV / COS III / S C Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus standing, facing each other, clasping hands. Sestertius, Rome, March - December 161 32 mm/ 23.65 g. RIC 795, BMCR 848, Cohen 45, Banti 22 ex Walter Friedrich Stoecklin Collection, Nomos Obolos Auction 25.03.2018 The reverse is a bit rough, but I do like the type that depicts a historic moment which in this case actually might have physically happened in a public ceremony and/or in the enclosed walls of the Senate house - the handshake that symbolized the creation of the first joint reign of two Augusti in Roman history. It was also the last celebration in a golden age that ended within months after this event at the hands of Parthian and Germanic invasions, the plague and the beginning of an economic downward spiral. The portrait is unusual for the issue because it does not show the naturalistic youthful bust usually seen, but shows Marcus with an upward gaze and traits of the more abstract style which would take over in his later years and can also be studied on his column in Rome.
