Pre-Long Beach Auction #80

C. Coelius Caldus. Silver Denarius (3.97 g), 53 BC. Rome. C COEL CALDVS, COS below, head of the consul C. Coelius Caldus right; behind, tablet inscribed L D. Reverse CALDVS III VIR, radiate head of Sol right; behind, oval shield; before, round shield. Crawford 437/1a; Sydenham 891; Coelia 4. Boldly struck and unusually well centered for this rare issue. A superb example and lustrous. Both portraits are outstanding! Nearly Mint State.

C. Coelius Caldus issued two coin types during his tenure as moneyer, and both depict on the obverse the head of his namesake ancestor who was the first of his family to attain the consulship. Toynbee noted the extremely realistic rendering of the portrait and thought it must have been based on an original portrait (J. M. C. Toynbee, Roman Historical Portraits, p. 21). In Rome, nobles were entitled to display images (imagines) of ancestors in the atrium of the family house, and these were either sculptures, more often, death masks molded directly from the face of the deceased. The superb lifelike rendering of the portrait of the consul C. Coelius Caldus on this coin indicates that perhaps his death mask served as the model used by the die engravers for this issue.
Estimated Value $4,000 - 5,000.
Ex NAC 45 (2 April 2008), 14; Triton I (2-3 December 1997), 1200.