Julia Augusta (Livia), 14-29. Dupondius (Orichalcum, 29 mm, 14.53 g, 7 h), struck under Tiberius, Rome, 22-23. SALVS AVGVSTA Bare-headed and draped bust of Livia to right, her hair tied into a bun at the back of her head. Rev. TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVG P M TR POT IIII around large S.C. BMC 42 (Tiberius), BN 63 (Tiberius). Cohen 5. RIC 47 (Tiberius). With a glossy olive-brown patina and a splendid portrait of Livia. Some roughness and breaks in the patina, otherwise, about extremely fine.
From the Molard Collection, Switzerland.
Livia was one of the most powerful women in Roman history, but she exercised her power in the most discrete way, avoiding all forms of ostentation or overt meddling in affairs (though she often acted covertly to protect her friends). She was the mother, through her first husband Tiberius Claudius Nero, of Tiberius and Nero Claudius Drusus, and grandmother of the emperor Claudius and the great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula. Born in 58 BC, she would have been around 80 when this coin was struck.