Octavian as Augustus, 27 BC – 14 AD. Aureus, Caesaraugusta 19-18, AV 19 mm, 7.84 g. AVGVSTVS Bare head r. Rev. S·P· – Q·R Victory facing, head l., holding before her a round shield inscribed CL·V. Bahrfeldt –. C –. BMC –. RIC –, cf. 62. CBN –, cf. 1092. Calicó 287 (these dies). cf. NAC sale 94, 2016, 57 (these dies). Of the highest rarity, the finest of only three specimens known. A portrait of superb style struck in high relief on a very large flan and a finely engraved reverse composition. Minor marks and a banker's mark on reverse, otherwise virtually as struck and almost FdcGraded MS* Strike: 5/5, Surface: 3/5 - banker's marks, NGC photo certificate number 8558293-003 Ex Stack's sale 3 December 1996, Michael F. Price, 105 and MDC 18, 2026, 205 sales. There are only three additional specimens known of this extremely rare coin of Augustus. All are remarkably well preserved and are produced from the same obverse and reverse dies as our coin. Additionally, all four coins also have a small M or Σ stamped on them in the field of the reverse, and which is occasionally encountered on other coins of Augustus (see, for instance, Triton XI, 2008, 761, an aureus of Augustus from Emerita in a similar state of preservation, also depicting the clipeus virtutis on the reverse). The inescapable conclusion is that all of these aurei must have originated from a single source. Whether that source was a collection (in the Triton sale it was postulated that the small stamp on the coins is an "owner's mark") where the coins were accumulated at different times and from different sources, or whether the coins all originated from the same find, is unfortunately not known. Our coin has sales provenances going back into the mid-1990s; the specimen illustrated in Calicó first appeared at auction in 1989, and the other aureus mentioned above exhibiting the same stamp on the reverse also appeared at auction in the mid-1990s. Before Augustus visited Lugdunum in 16 B.C. and established there the principal imperial mint for precious metal coinage, several imperial mints were already operating in Spain. Although there is still much that is unknown about these mints, based on stylistic and also historical grounds, it appears that there were at least two, possibly even three, and that they were most likely located at the important Roman centers of Emerita and Tarraco. The themes presented on the reverses of these Spanish issues are typically military in nature – just as on the coin offered here which boasts of Augustus's victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium by way of the clipeus virtutis, the golden shield of valor awarded to the emperor in 26 B.C. by a most grateful and somewhat sycophantic Roman senate – which is no wonder considering that Spain hosted four legions at this time. The great abundance of Imperial gold and silver issues from Spanish mints at this time was due to the many gold and silver mines conveniently located throughout the province. Please find here the video of the coin