The Roman Empire
Tiberius augustus, 14 – 37
As, 34-35 AD, Æ 10.92 g. TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVST IMP VIII Laureate head l. Rev. PONTIF MAXIM TRIBVN POTEST XXXVI Winged caduceus between S – C. C 12. BMC 107. RIC 53. CBN –.
Dark green patina gently smoothed, otherwise about extremely fine Ex Leu sale 22, 1979, 192 and Freeman & Sear Fixed Price List 10, 2005, 81.

The expansion of coinage types in bronze under Tiberius is noteworthy. The bronze coinage under Augustus was limited in scope and seemed hardly sufficient for normal day to day transactions. It also was generally not aided with graphic representations. This would be completely reversed under Tiberius and the coin types are quite varied.

The caduceus is associated with Mercury and here RIC apparently associates this attribute with Mercury being the ”messenger of the gods”. RIC also indicates the portraiture of the emperor shows him quite aged on these later bronzes. This has not been my experience as the portrait style still tends to be idealistic, following the tradition of Augustus. MSG.