The George W. La Borde Collection of Roman Aurei Part I
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Commodus augustus, 180 – 192
Aureus 186-189, AV 7.21 g. M COMM ANT P – FEL AVG BRIT Laureate head r. Rev. VICTOR – I – A – E – FELICI Victory, turreted, flying l., holding diadem in both hands; below, two shields and tablet inscribed C V P P. C – cf. 952 (denarius). BMC –, cf. 240 (denarius). RIC –, cf. 196 (denarius). Biaggi 1022 (this coin). Coin Hoards II p. 66, fig. 15, 6 (this obverse die). Calicó 2360 (this coin).
Exceedingly rare, apparently only four specimens known. A very interesting and
fascinating issue, well-struck on a very large flan and extremely fine
Provenance
Sold by Ars Classica auction 16, Lucerne, 3 July 1933, lot 192. Sold by Münzhandlung Basel (Basel), Erich and Herbert Cahn experts, auction 8, 22-23 March 1937, lot 836, estimated CHF 800, for CHF 755.
Leo Biaggi de Blasys (1906-1979) Collection, sold privately in 1978 to Bank Leu (Zurich) and a partner.
Sold by Ader-Picard-Tajan auctioneer, Jean Vinchon expert, auction, Paris, 20 November 1992, lot 124.
Gilbert Steinberg Collection, sold by Numismatica Ars Classica & Spink Taisei Numismatics, Zurich, auction 16 November 1994, lot 510.
Sold by Fritz Rudolf Künker auction 29, Osnabrück, 8 March 1995, lot 2240.
Inventory of Robert Kokotailo – Calgary Coin Gallery (Alberta, Canada), sold on 1 February 2002.

When this aureus was struck, sometime after his fifth consulship on January 1, 86, Commodus must have had a fresh and wary perspective on the hazards of being emperor. The previous year had begun well enough: on the heels of a swift victory in Britain, Commodus began to celebrate the vows for his decennalia, or tenth year of power; he even went so far as to describe the event as the dawn of a new golden age, which he inaugurated with the Primi Decenales games. However, the celebratory atmosphere was quickly tarnished with the revolt in that same year of his praetorian prefect Perennis, who intended to replace Commodus as emperor with his own son. It was a serious coup that shook his confidence, and that required him to pay a largess to the army (which he honoured with special coin types, including one depicting the emperor haranguing the troops). This fiasco was followed in 186 with a guerilla war in Spain and Gaul led by a deserter named Maternus, who in the following year came to Rome in disguise to murder Commodus, and who might have succeeded had he not been betrayed the day before he intended to strike. With so much treachery about his person, Commodus could hardly have been enjoying his lot as emperor, and the rather festive appearance of this aureus, inscribed C. V. P. P. for Consul V Pater Patriae, represented the bright side of his otherwise perilous life.