Britannicus 41-55 AD. Æ Sestertius (36 mm; 29.70 g). Uncertain Balkan/Thrakian mint, circa 50-54 AD. Obverse: TI CLAVDIVS • CAESAR • G • F • BRITANNICVS •, Bareheaded and draped bust left. Reverse: Mars advancing left, barefoot, but wearing full military outfit, holding spear in outstretched right hand and round shield in left; S C across fields. A wonderful and unusually well preserved specimen of this difficult issue. A coin with fine details, especially on the reverse, and with a charming dark-brown patina. Very rare.
Referanse:
RIC I p. 130 note
Referanse 2:
BMCRE 226 (Claudius)
Proveniens:
Ex. Classical Numismatic Group Triton XII, 5.1.2010, lot 312; Ex. Numismatica Ars Classica auction 86, 8.10.2015, lot 122
Info:
Britannicus was born on 12 February 41 AD and was the son of emperor Claudius and his third wife Messalina. The boy´s name was initially Tiberius Claudius Germanicus, but this was changed to Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus after the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. He was the natural heir to the throne, but this would change after Claudius had Messalina executed for conspiring against him in AD 48. He married Agrippina junior, his own nice who was an ambitious and power-hungry woman. She convinced Claudius adopt her own son Nero as his heir to the throne and made sure that Britannicus fell out of favor. When Claudius died of natural causes, or possible poisoning in AD 54, Nero was proclaimed emperor. It did not take long for Nero to get rid of Britannicus as he had him poisoned during a dinner party in AD 55. The sestertii of Britannicus have long been a matter of debate. Together a small series of sestertii and dupondii of Nero and Agrippina junior, the actual mint of these coins has been uncertain. Indeed, the coins bear Latin inscriptions, but the style and fabric are quite different from the aes coinage produced at the western mint of Lugdunum. The Rome mint did not produce any aes coinage during this period and is clearly not good candidate. In the later years, these issues have been attributed to a mint in Thrace, a theory which has been further strengthened by numerous finds of the coins in the Balkans region. It is believed that the coins were struck for use by the Roman legions serving on the eastern border.
