Auction Name: 2026 January 22 - 23 NYINC World & Ancient Coins Signature Auction

Lot Number: 35009

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/3130*35009

Augustus (27 BC-AD 14). AR denarius (20mm, 3.54 gm, 6h). NGC XF 5/5 - 1/5, edge damage, marks. Spain (Colonia Patricia?), ca. 18-16 BC. Bare head of Augustus right with well-manicured hair; linear border / AVGVSTVS, Capricorn right, holding globe attached to rudder, bearing cornucopia on back; linear border. RIC I 126.

From The Peh Family Collection, Part IV. Ex Baldwin's, Auction XXV (5 January 2011), lot 45.

After visiting the astrologer Theogenes at Apollonia around 45/44 BC with his friend Agrippa, Augustus (then Octavian) became more assured of his destined greatness. Suetonius, the ancient Roman historian, mentions that Augustus, inspired by the astrological significance of his birth under the sign of Capricorn, issued a silver coin bearing this sign. This coinage symbolically represented not only Augustus's belief in the protective and auspicious power of Capricorn but also served as a potent emblem of his destined leadership and the commencement of a new era of Roman rule under his auspices.

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