Coin Commemorating the Death of Julius Caesar sells today at auction for over 4 million USD.
A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN HISTORY, THE DEATH OF JULIUS CAESAR ON THE FLOOR OF THE ROMAN SENATE WAS COMMEMORATED BY MARCUS JUNIUS BRUTUS, CONSPIRATOR AND ASSASSIN OF CAESAR WITH THIS COIN WHICH SOLD TODAY FOR £2.7 MILLION PLUS BUYER FEES.
This singular act ushered Rome into a civil war that culminated in the birth of the Roman Empire, the backdrop of the events we read about in the New Testament. Brutus would fall to the combined forces of Mark Antony and Octavian, later known as Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome who reigned at the birth of Christ.
This gold Aureus was minted under the authority of Brutus in 42 BC. The iconography of the coin is significant. The obverse has a portrait of Brutus, yet the reverse is intriguing.
Two different daggers symbolize the dagger wielded by Brutus and the other of Cassius his co-conspirator. In the center is a pileus (or liberty cap) which was given to freed slaves and was a symbol for liberty. The liberty cap symbol has also been used on some US coins. Underneath is the inscription EID MAR, commemorating the day of the assassination, the Ides of March.
This particular coin is one of only three known examples in gold, though Campana’s unpublished die study identifies 88 silver denarii of this type. The hammer price at auction for this coin was £2.7 million British pounds plus a buyers fee of 20% (£540,000) plus a VAT tax on the buyers fee of 20% (£108,000) which comes to a grand total of £3,348,000 ($4,329,298.80 USD). The coin weighs 8.06 grams and is approximately the size of a US nickel.
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