Struck on campaign by a military mint, this issue belongs to the short period after the Second Battle of Mutina on April 21, 43BC, at which time the 18-year-old Octavian (the future first Emperor Augustus) was briefly recognised as Rome’s consul.
Caesar, who had been assassinated the previous year, is depicted as in life wearing a gold wreath: he would not be officially deified until early in 42BC.
The striking of the double portrait coin in July or August 43BC was designed to send a clear message to the legions who received it, that Octavian was the rightful heir. A coin with ‘totemic significance in the numismatic storyboard of the ancient world’, this well-preserved, off-centre strike is believed to be the coin sold by Glendining in 1937 for £18.10.
