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Search Advanced Search Search By Coin ID     Home ANCIENT/BYZANTINE Ancient Spain (872) Byzantine (753) MEDIEVAL/EARLY WORLD Germany (30) MODERN WORLD COUNTERFEITS AND IMITATIONS   Submit New Coin(s)   Sponsors page Terms of Service Contact Us About Us FAQ Page Coin Detail Click here to see enlarged image. ID:     51-204      [UNVERIFIED] Type:     Roman Imperial Issuer:     Galba Date Ruled:     A.D. 68-69 Metal:     Gold Denomination:     Aureus Struck / Cast:     struck Date Struck:     AD April to late 68 Weight:     7.72 g Obverse Legend:     IMP GALBA Obverse Description:     Laureate head right, with globe at point of bust Reverse Legend:     HISPANIA Reverse Description:     Hispania, draped, standing left, holding corn ears and poppy in right hand and round shield and two vertical spears in left Mint:     Tarraco Primary Reference:     RIC 020 Reference2:     BMC – (cf. BMC 172 (denarius)) Reference3:     C – (cf. C 81 (IMP SER GALBA AVG)) Reference4:     CBN – (cf. CBN 9 (denarius)); Calicó – (cf. Calico 479 (head l.)) Photograph Credit:     Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG Source:     http://www.arsclassicacoins.com/ Price Sold For:     30000 Swiss Franc Date Sold:     03/05/2009 Grade:     aEF Notes:     NAC Auction 51, Lot 204 Of the highest rarity, very few specimens known. Struck in high relief and about extremely fine The coinage of Galba presents a variety of portrait styles because he minted not only at Rome, but also in Spain, Gaul and North Africa. Galba’s Spanish coinage may have been produced at more than one mint, but it is clear that most, if not all of it, was struck at a single mint, presumably Tarraco, his old capital city. After news arrived in Spain of the uprising of Vindex, Galba offered his support to the rebel, upon which his own soldiers hailed him imperator at Carthago Nova on April 2, 68. Once he learned of Vindex’s defeat, he left Hispania Tarraconensis and led his legions on a long march to Rome. Fortunately, Galba’s legions were not required to fight their countrymen since Nero had committed suicide while they were en route, and the capital lay open to receive Galba as emperor. Galba took the helm at a critical moment, for he was the first non-Julio-Claudian emperor and his revolt proved that emperors could be made in the provinces – a lesson the senate and the praetorian guardsmen found hard to accept, but would witness two more times before the civil war had ended. As one of Galba’s most elegant coin types, this aureus celebrates Spain, the land he governed at the time of his revolt against Nero. The personification of Spain is here shown as a woman of dual virtue: fertility of the land, and prowess in war. In some later representations she is accompanied by a rabbit, a symbol of the region. Both Stabo and Pliny wrote that rabbits were so plentiful in Spain that occasionally towns had to be moved because they were overrun, and that on at least one occasion a city’s foundation was dangerously undermined by burrows. Estimate: 28000 CHF

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