As — Nero — Rome

Obverse: NERO CAESAR AVG GERM IMP, laureate head of Nero left

Reverse: S C, winged, draped Victory moving left, holding a shield inscribed S P Q R in both hands

Mass: 4.27 g

Diameter: 23 mm

Mint Info: Rome, 62–68 AD

Catalogues: RIC I (second edition) Nero 313

This as was struck at Rome during Nero's reign, between 62 and 68 AD. The obverse shows Nero's laureate head facing left, an orientation less commonly used than the right-facing portraits typical of most Julio-Claudian coinage. The reverse depicts a winged, draped Victory advancing left, carrying a large shield inscribed S P Q R, "the Senate and People of Rome," flanked by the S C ("by decree of the Senate") that marks it as base-metal coinage struck under senatorial authority. The Victory-and-shield type presents Roman military success as belonging collectively to the state itself, with the shield standing in as a votive object commemorating triumph rather than a piece of Nero's personal iconography.

Nero's reign, though remembered primarily for his later excesses and the eventual revolts that ended it, opened with several years of competent administration under the guidance of Seneca and Burrus, during which coinage like this continued the traditional visual language of Roman civic and military ideology largely unchanged from earlier reigns. Bronze asses such as this one circulated as the everyday small change of the Roman economy, reaching a far broader cross-section of the population than the empire's gold and silver issues.

Ex. Noble Roman Coins