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Auction: 23007 - Ancient Coins Including the 'Kyrios' Collection of Greek Coins and featuring the 'Ostorius' Collection of Roman Gold
Lot: 186

The 'Ostorius' Collection | NGC Choice VF | Roman Empire, Tiberius (14-37), AV Aureus, AD 30-37, Lugdunum, TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS, laureate head right rev. PONTIF MAXIM, Livia (as Pax) seated right, holding vertical sceptre in her right hand, palm frond in her left, ornate throne, single line below, 7.77g, 11h (Cohen 15; BMC 46; RIC I, 29; Calicó 305c), a historic pin-mark and scratch beforer nose and traces of smoothing before PAX, otherwise with a sumptuous honey-blue tone overlying lustrous and largely original fields, all providing a fitting frame for the classic Tiberian visage, a pleasing very fine, in NGC Ancients holder, very harshly graded Choice VF ~ Brushed, Graffito, Ex Jewellery (Cert. #6768668-002) [Strike 5/5; Surfaces 2/5]

The identity of the 'Tribute Penny' coin in the Bible has long attracted discussion. Is it a denarius of Tiberius or even of Augustus? The Greek word used in the Bible is indeed 'denarion' which is highly suggestive of this.


However, because of the total absence of these coin types from circulation in Judaea at this point alternatives have been proposed from Antioch, Cappadocia, and Tyre. A further textual complication comes from one of the Nag Hammadi Coptic texts, the non-canonical 'Gospel of Thomas'. In its 100th verse we once more find a rendition of the tribute penny story. Here, instead of the expected silver denarius we find reference to a gold coin. Therefore, could this Aureus of Tiberius too be considered a possible contender for the 'Tribute Penny'?


Probably not. Attempts to work out the precise types of the coin held by Jesus that day are entirely futile not least because of the dates of composition of the gospels decades and generations after the life of Christ. Too many attempts have been made to make a particular coin fit with the story when the issue most likely is really a textual one. Writing much later when Imperial coinage circulated freely in the province (from the Jewish war onwards) it would have been easy to take for granted the presence of Imperial coinage in the province at an earlier imperial date - in fact, this type of textual anachronism occurs commonly with other Classical texts.


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Sold for
£4,000

Starting price
£4000