Tiberius, A.D. 14-37. AR denarius (“Tribute Penny”)

Tiberius, A.D. 14-37. AR denarius (“Tribute Penny”), Lugdunum (Lyon), ca. A.D. 16-21 Obv. TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS – Laureate head of Tiberius right. Rev. PONTIF MAXIM – Livia, personifying Pax, seated right on a high-backed chair with ornate baluster legs; she extends an olive-branch in her right hand and rests a long upright sceptre in her left. RIC I² 30. Attractive silver surfaces with light cabinet tone; sharply struck portrait and clear reverse details.

This celebrated type, long identified as the Gospel “Tribute Penny” (Matt. 22:19-21), epitomises the ideological programme of Tiberius’ reign. The obverse stresses his Augustan lineage (“son of the deified Augustus”), while the reverse proclaims him Pontifex Maximus, supreme priest of Rome—an office that fused secular rule with religious guardianship. By casting Livia, the formidable mother of Tiberius, in the guise of Pax, the coin links the stability of the Julio-Claudian house to the peace enjoyed throughout the Empire after decades of conquest. Struck at Lugdunum, then the chief mint for imperial silver, the denarius circulated widely and became Rome’s everyday coin of reference; its survival in great numbers allows modern collectors a tangible connection to the formative decades of the Principate and to one of the most famous passages in Christian scripture.