Roman Empire, Augustus

Description

Augustus transferred some of the minting of coins to Lugdunum (Lyons) and Nemausus (Nimes). The imagery on this coin must have been chosen with the army in mind. The obverse shows two heads facing away from one another, that of Agrippa, Augustus's great general who was by then dead, with the attribute of a mural crown, and that of Augustus as imperator and son of the deified Caesar. The crocodile chained to a wreathed palm on the reverse is a reminder of the conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, ending the civil war that followed Julius Caesar's assassination. The allusion to past victories is intended to conjure up new ones. By an oversight, when this coin was being minted it was turned and struck a second time: beneath the crocodile on the reverse the face and neck of Augustus as portrayed on the obverse can clearly be discerned, as can his description as son of the deified Caesar, DIVI Flilius].