Pre-Long Beach Auction #80

Julius Caesar. Silver Denarius (4.10 g), 40 BC. Rome. Q. Voconius Vitulus, moneyer. DIVI IVLI before, laureate head of Julius Caesar right; behind, lituus. Reverse Q VOCONIVS above, VITVLVS in exergue, bull-calf walking left. Crawford 526/2; HCRI 329; Sydenham 1132; RSC 46. Boldly struck and well centered on a full flan. An exceptional portrait of Caesar! Lovely toned surfaces with hints of iridescense. Nearly Mint State.

With the exception of a short period during the principate of Augustus, it is with the coins of Q. Voconius Vitulus and his colleague, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, in 40 BC that the long tradition of a college of moneyers producing currency at the Capitoline mint ended. The year before with the outcome of the Perusine War between Octavian and Lepidus still to be decided, the moneyers hedged their bets by using purposefully ambiguous types on their coins: M. Arrius Secundus' denarii (Crawford 513/2 and 513/3) used an ancestor's portrait that resembled Octavian; C. Numonius Vaala's aurei (Crawford 514/1) employed the head of Victory, the portrait of which is clearly Fulvia, Mark Antony's wife; and L. Servius Rufus' denarii (Crawford 515/2) have an ancestor's portrait which is most obviously Brutus. In each case the choice of types could be argued to favor the winning side, whichever side that may be. By 40 BC, however, the Perusine War was safely behind Octavian who was now firmly in control of the West, and perhaps angered by these shenanigans at the mint he decided to bring it firmly under his own authority.
Estimated Value $50,000-UP.
Ex C. K. Collection (Triton XIV, 3 January 2011), 605.