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Auction: 24005 - The Official Coinex Auction of Ancient, British and World Coins
Lot: 109

NGC Ch VF | Roman Empire, Caligula (AD 37-41), AE Sestertius, C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT, laureate head left, rev. ADLOCVT, Gaius (Caligula), standing togate, left, upon a platform in front of a low stool, saluting five soldiers who stand before him, all wearing helmets and carrying shields and parazonia, with the two pairs standing rearmost carrying an aquila, COH in exergue, 27.31g (Cohen 1; RIC 32), detailed and lustrous, with a flattering green patina, a particularly handsome portrait and sharp inscriptions, some light contact-marking notable to the reverse but otherwise about extremely fine, in an NGC 'Ancients' holder, graded Choice Very Fine (Strike: 5/5, Surface: 4/5) [NGC Cert. #8221849-015]

Provenance

The Major Hamish and Mrs Ann Orr-Ewing Collection of Roman Coins

Purchased from Seaby, c. 1980 (with ticket)

Hall Park McCullough, Stack's, 20 November 1967, lot 1095


The inscription adlocvt coh, refers to an Adlocutio Cohortium, or speech to the cohorts, in which the Emperor would harangue the troops. These military orations were often delivered at the point of an emperor's accession to the purple, an adoption of a successor into the imperial family, or as a means of rousing the troops at the beginning or triumphal conclusion of a military expedition. On this type, one usually sees the emperor making his address on a raised platform to five or six legionaries down below. While the emperor is sometimes accompanied by one or two praetorian prefects, in this present example - the first of many 'Allocution' issues to appear throughout the imperial coinage - Caligula stands alone, in front of a curule chair and making a salute. This is believed to commemorate an address made by Caligula to the Praetorian Guard upon his accession in AD 37, although it has also been suggested that the allocution in question was made before the emperor's abortive expedition to Britain in 40, ending with the famous episode of legionaries collecting shells on the shores of the English Channel. The occasion notwithstanding, the grisly premonitions of this issue, exhibited by Caligula's sharp portraiture and the increasing significance of the Praetorian Guard, are striking. In the coming decades, this private bodyguard would dictate the accession and collapse of multiple emperors, and engender a period of bloodshed unknown to the Romans since Actium.

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Sold for
£2,700

Starting price
£1200