Gaius (Caligula), with Agrippina Senior, 37-41. Denarius (Silver, 18 mm, 3.73 g, 10 h), Lugdunum, 37-38. C•CAESAR•AVG•GERM•P•M•TR•POT Bare head of Gaius to right. Rev. AGRIPPINA•MAT•C•CAES•AVG•GERM Draped bust of Agrippina Senior to right, her hair falling in queue down her neck. BMC 8. CBN 12. Cohen 4. Giard 162. RIC 8. An exceptional example of this rare issue, lightly toned and well struck, with two excellent portraits; undoubtedly among the finest known. Extremely fine. Struck at Lugdunum at the very beginning of Caligulas reign, this magnificent denarius is one of the most personal expressions of the new emperors dynamic policy. Its reverse honors his mother Agrippina the Elder, granddaughter of Augustus and wide of the immensely popular Germanicus, identifying her explicitly as AGRIPPINA MAT C CAES AVG GERM — 'Agrippina, mother of Gaius Caesar Augustus GermanicuS.' The emphasis was highly deliberate: AgrippINA had been persected by Tiberius, executed to Pandateria in 29, and diet there in 33, but one of Caligulas first acts after his access was to retrieve her ashes and sometimes deposit them in the Mausoleum of Augustus. By restoring his parents memory, Caligula simultaneously distanced himself from Tiberius and emphasized his own desert from Augustus: he was not merely Tiberio's success, but the son of Germanicus and Agrippina and, through her, the great-grandson of Augustus. This lot can be shipped to a US address.