The shield on this denarius is the whole point. Struck around 19 BC at an uncertain mint in Spain, RIC I 62 shows a Victory in flight on the reverse, wings outstretched, hoisting the *clipeus virtutis*, the golden shield voted to Augustus by the Senate in 27 BC and hung in the Curia Julia to advertise his four cardinal virtues: *virtus*, *clementia*, *iustitia*, and *pietas*. The Senate and People (S • P • Q • R) hover above, claiming authorship of the honor, while the obverse offers only a bare head and the single word AVGVSTVS, the name itself granted by that same Senate in the same settlement.
The whole coin is a compressed argument: he holds power because they gave it to him, and they gave it to him because he deserved it. By 19 BC, with the Cantabrian wars in the Spanish northwest finally grinding to a close and Agrippa mopping up the last resistance, that argument needed restating in silver across the legions' pay chests. A Victory carrying a shield of virtues is not a battlefield trophy; it is a constitutional theory in flight.
- Mint
- Uncertain Spanish mint
- Struck
- circa 19 BC
- Authority
- Augustus
- Reverse
- Victory flying facing with wings spread, holding the clipeus virtutis, with S • P • Q • R above