Galba, April 68 – January 69
Denarius, African mint, Carthage (?) circa June 68 – October 69, AR 18 mm, 3.26 g. IMP AVG – SER GALBA Laureate bust r. with globe at point of bust. Rev. VICTO – RIA·PR Victory standing facing on globe, head l., holding wreath in r. hand and palm branch in l. In field, S – C. C 331. BMC 269. RIC 520 var. (different reverse legend break). H. Sutherland, Supplementum Galbianum in QT 1984 –, cf. R. Mowat, Le monnayage de Clodius Macer et les deniers de Galba marqués des lettres SC, 1902, p. 194, 331. CBN –, cf. 270 (different obverse legend break). An apparently unrecorded variety of a very rare type. An interesting and unusual portrait struck on fresh metal. Lovely iridescent tone and extremely fine

Ex Aureo & Calicó sale 241, 2012, 47.

In the revolution of A.D. 68 three claimants in the Western provinces took up arms against the Emperor Nero. The uprisings of Vindex in Gaul and Clodius Macer in North Africa appear to have been sparked by the outrage felt by provincial subjects who had tired of Nero's callous disregard for their interests. Galba's revolt in Spain, however, is better characterised as an opportunistic act of a man who had enjoyed one of the most successful careers in Rome under the Julio-Claudians. Suetonius (Galba 4) records how as a child Galba visited Augustus, who pinched his cheek and said: "You too will taste a little of my power, child." His later success and his accumulation of great wealth is well-attested. He was among Livia's dearest friends, was nearly made emperor after the murder of Caligula, and he proved so valuable to Claudius that the invasion of Britain was postponed because Galba had suffered an unexpected illness. As successful as Clodius Macer must have been to have won his command in North Africa, he was no match for Galba. Once he had raised the standards of rebellion against Nero, Macer became an obstruction to Galba, the man who had been chosen by the senate to replace Nero. Suetonius (Galba 11) mentions Clodius Macer only in passing, noting that he had been in command in Africa, and characterising him as one of the men who had plotted against Galba. Tacitus puts the North African revolt in a shadowy context in two brief passages (I.6, I.11): "Macer, obviously bent on causing trouble in Africa, had been put to death by the imperial agent Trebonius Garutianus on the orders of Galba." ... "As for Africa and its legion, they had lived to see the execution of Clodius Macer and were content with any kind of emperor after experiencing a lesser master." Galba's denarii from North Africa are among the most fascinating of all Roman coins, for they combine the design content of Galba with the style and fabric of Macer's hastily organized mint in Carthage. One noteworthy aspect of this North African coinage was the use of SC (senatus consulto) on denarii. That inscription was rarely used on Roman silver even under the Republic, and until A.D. 68 it had not been used on a Roman silver coin since about 40 B.C. It was the most distinctive feature of the Carthage mint, and is thought to have been intended to assure the senate in Rome that Macer's revolt was aimed exclusively at ending the tyranny of Nero. Its extension to the coinage of Galba presumably would not have had the same significance if those denarii were struck after Galba had been hailed emperor by the senate, but merely would have been a carry-over of an existing mint practice.