- Stock: Sold
- Model: Cossutius Maridianus portrait of Caesar
Julius Caesar. April 44 BC. Fourree (plated) Denarius (18 mm, 3.54 g). Rome mint; C. Cossutius Maridianus, moneyer. Laureate and veiled head right; apex behind, lituus before / C • COSSVTIVS and MARID–IAN[VS] arranged in the form of a cross; A–A–A– [F•F] in angles. Crawford 480/19; Alföldi Type XVII; CRI 112; Sydenham 1069; RSC 8; Type as RBW 1687
This portrait denarius of Caesar was issued by the moneyer C. Cossutius Maridianus in the month following the assassination of the dictator on the Ides of March 44 BC. Maridianus was one of four moneyers appointed for that year, the others being M. Mettius, L. Aemilius Buca, and P. Sepullius Macer. The obverse inscription includes the title Parens Patriae (Parent of his Country) which Crawford regards as posthumous. Veiled portraits of the dictator appear both before and after the Ides of March. The interesting reverse type shows the moneyer's name arranged in a cruciform pattern with his official titles placed in the angles. A A A F F is abbreviated from IIII VIR A A A F F quattuovir aere argento auro flando feriundo (one of four men for the casting and striking of bronze, silver, and gold). This was the first time that the full title of the moneyer's office had appeared on the coinage of the Roman Republic