Beware the Ides of March! Post your Julius Caesar coins!
lordmarcovan
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Today is that fateful day upon which Julius Caesar was assassinated, 2,069 years ago in 44 BC. Post your JC coins, if you have them!
I wanted mine to be an example struck in Caesar’s lifetime, not a posthumous issue. I also wanted it to be Fine or better, with reasonable eye appeal, a decent portrait, and most or all of Caesar’s name legible on the flan.
In other words, I wanted a “happy medium” coin that was nice enough to meet the criteria above, but not TOO nice and therefore unaffordable to me.
For a while I had trouble striking the right balance and came up as the underbidder in several auctions, but finally won this one in a European auction (thankfully before all that tariff stuff started).
It has a slightly ragged flan and a banker’s mark, but I was ready to accept those and chalk them up as “character”. I was satisfied with the outcome when I submitted it to NGC.
This coin has not only Caesar’s name visible but also his DICT PERPETVO (“Perpetual Dictator”) title. Furthermore, it was struck in February to March of 44 BC, within just a few weeks of the assassination.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Comments
I have four Roman coins from "the time of Julius Caesar" (49-44 BC), but only one with his name on it. It's a bronze dupondius from 45 BC. The obverse depicts not Caesar himself but a portrait of Victory - you can tell it's Victory by the stub of the wing over her shoulder. The obverse inscription is "CAESAR DIC TER", Caesar, Dictator for the Third time, which narrows down the date of issue. It's a shame Caesar's name is mostly worn away, and there's a big X carved onto Victory's head, but then, I'd have had to pay over $1000 for it if this were not the case. The reverse is much nicer, showing Minerva standing with sheild, spear and snake, and the moneyer's name C CLOVI PRAEF.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
Great looking coin lordmarcovan.
My Caesar example is not a portrait coin but still contains its share of propoganda. Struck in Africa during the Civil War with Pompey, it repeats his family's claim of divine lineage through Venus via her mortal son Aeneas who escaped the fall of Troy to found Rome.
I acquired this coin around 1975 during my second round of coin collecting - first round was in mid 1960's trying to fill Whitman folders with coins from circulation. At the time I traded about a dozen ancient coins at a Wilkes-Barre coin show for my Caesar denarius. Three years ago I submitted it to NGC.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/gold/liberty-head-2-1-gold-major-sets/liberty-head-2-1-gold-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1840-1907-cac/alltimeset/268163
March of Time - 27 Centuries in Gold
https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=36590
Obverse: Venus diademy head on the right, wearing an earring and necklace; behind, along the neck, small bust of Cupid.
Reverse: Gallic trophy formed by a helmet, a breastplate, shields, spears
and two carnyx; at the foot of the trophy: two captives sitting; the one on the left, a woman sitting on the left, crying; the one on the right, a man sitting on the right, turning around, hands tied behind one’s back. “Cæsar”
JULIUS CAESAR
(07/13/100-03/15/44 BC)
Julius Caesar, born in 100 BC, belongs to the party of Marius and opposes Sylla at a very young age. He was praetor in 62 BC, before forming with Pompey and Crassus the first triumvirate in 59 BC, the year of his consulship. He then receives a proconsular imperium on Gaul, renewed in 54. He fights Vercingétorix in Gergovie then in Alesia. Besieged, the Gallic leader must surrender. Crassus having been killed at Carrhae, in Mesopotamia, in 53 BC, Caesar got angry with Pompey and marched on Rome in 49 BC. In 48 BC, at Pharsalus, he crushed Pompey who fled to Egypt where he was assassinated. Caesar must then face the sons of Pompey and the Pompeian party. He defeated them at Thapsus (Africa, death of Cato of Utica) in 46 BC and at Munda (Spain, death of Cneius Pompey). Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March (March 15, 44 BC) by Cassius and Brutus. He was deified after his death in 42 BC.
Not coins, but a couple of medals that I sold last year that fit right in here:
https://www.numismagram.com/product-page/103291
https://www.numismagram.com/product-page/103280
Jeremy Bostwick
For exceptional works of medallic art, check out our current inventory at Numismagram!
The only portrait piece I have was issued 11 months after his death.
This was struck at a military mint while Mark Antoney was on the run for the Senate.
Hail the gift of memory in this fifty-second state. Who sold me down the river and shafts me while he waits. Outside the gates of Eden, star spangled and so late.