Lot 699
Licinius II (Caesar, AD 317-324), Gold Aureus, 5.3g. Licinius II (Caesar, AD 317-324), Gold Aureus, 5.3g. Mint of Nicomedia, AD 321/2. D N VAL LICIN LININIVS NOB C, bare-headed, draped and cuirassed bust facing. Rev. IOVI CONSER-VATORI CAES, Jupiter seated facing on throne set on platform, holding Victory on globe and sceptre, platform inscribed SIC V/SIC X in two lines, eagle standing left at feet to left, head right, holding wreath in beak, SMN? (RIC 42; Depeyrot 31/2; Calicó 5150 (this coin)). Boldly struck with full legends on both sides on a full flan with margins, a few faint hairlines on the obverse, delicately toned, superb extremely fine.
Estimated Value $40,000-UP.
This remarkable facing head Aureus commemorates the fifth anniversary of the young Caesar Licinius II as well as the tenth anniversary of his father, Licinius I. Although early, the facing portrait here established the precedent for what would become a standard type of late Roman/Byzantine numismatic imperial iconography: the facing portrait coins of the Licinii are extremely rare, those of Constantius II who revived the type are much more common, and with the joint reigns of Arcadius and Honorius it becomes the norm, lasting in various forms through the entirety of Byzantine coinage.
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