Lot 3253

Description

Nero, (A.D. 54-68), AE As, uncertain Balkan mint, issued A.D. 64-68 and probably issued before mid 66, (9.99 grams), obv. laureate head of Nero to right, around NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG [GERM P M TR P], rev. S C across, eagle on globe, (S.-, RIC 439 [1st edn only, citing example in Gotha], C.-, BMC -). Dark green patina, good fine and extremely rare.

RIC Volume I (1st edition) notes the example of Gotha and introduces this as an unusual type, known apparently from single examples. In the RIC second edition a small section at the end of the Nero listing describes Uncertain (Balkan?) Mint. He notes them as an issue with several other coins as semi-official aes which are striking Latin - legended coins in a Greek - speaking area and probably in the frontier area occupied by the legions in Upper and Lower Moesia which lay far from other aes mints (a semi-official military mint). MacDowall in Num. Chron. 1960 (pp.106 ff) illustrates the Gotha example (cited above) and list four others in the museums at Copenhagen, Sofia, Warsaw and Leningrad. All seem to have the same unique obverse legend and of similar style and fabric.