Julius Caesar, second half of February, 44 BC. Denarius (Silver, 19.5 mm, 3.64 g, 7 h), with P. Sepullius Macer, Rome. CAESAR IMP Laureate head of Caesar to right; behind head, eight-pointed star. Rev. P SEPVLLIVS - MACER Venus standing to left, holding Victory in her right hand and, with her left, a long staff resting on a star of six points. Alföldi V ( but these dies not recorded ). Babelon (Julia) 46 and (Sepullia) 1. Crawford 480/5b. CRI 106a. RBW 1679. Sydenham 1071. Lightly toned and with a fine portrait of Julius Caesar. Pock marks, scratches and some striking flatness, otherwise, extremely fine.

From the collection of Robert Hoge, acquired from David Vagi in 2006.

This coin was struck about a month before Caesar’s assassination. K. Kraft first noticed that the wreath worn by Caesar differs significantly from those laurel-wreaths found on earlier portrait heads, as, for example, those of Venus. Therefore he suggested that it ought to be identified as the golden wreath, which was worn by Caesar at the Lupercalia in 44 BC. M. H. Crawford, however, thought that it was rather the corona aurea that he had been awarded as a triumphator. The same type of wreath had also been voted to Pompey; it has no resemblance to the Etruscan wreaths cited by Kraft.