Marcus Aurelius as Caesar AR Denarius, Rome, AD 155-156, Virtus RIC III 468

Marcus Aurelius (as Caesar), Denarius, silver, Rome, AD 155–156, 3.25 g, 18 mm. Obv. AVRELIVS CAES ANTON AVG PII F, bare head right. Rev. TR POT X COS II, Virtus, helmeted, standing left, holding parazonium and spear. Rome mint issue of AD 155–156; centrally struck on a compact flan with minor porosity and scattered encrustations; some peripheral weakness with portions of the legends off the flan. Ref. RIC III (Antoninus Pius) 468.

Struck when Marcus held tribunician power for the tenth time and his second consulship as Caesar under Antoninus Pius, this denarius records his established position as heir and the programmatic emphasis on Virtus, a standard imperial virtue type. The dating expressed in the reverse legend fixes the chronology of his pre-accession career and places the coin within the Rome mint series that marked his progression toward the imperial succession in AD 161.