Ancient Rome - 54-68 CE Nero AV Aureus NGC Choice XF

Rome Mint. AV Aureus 54-68 AD. NGC Choice XF. Strike : 5/5, Surface: 3/5. 7.37 grams. Obverse: IMP NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS laureate head of Nero facing right. Reverse: IVPPITER CVSTOS Jupiter seated facing left on throne, holding thunderbolts and scepter. This piece features a vivid, well-struck profile image of Nero. This original coin is given even more drama with its attractive golden orange coloration that emphasizes Nero's features.

Head of Nero from oversized statue. Glyptothek, Munich. Photo: wikipedia.

History will never forget Nero's cruel and hedonistic ways. In his own time he was despised by rich and poor, freedman and slave. This dissatisfaction with the indulgent emperor reached a fever pitch in 64 AD. This coin displays what Nero perceived as "divine protection" against the Pisonian Conspiracy, a rebellion that almost cost him his life. Nero enjoyed singing, and at one point he sang about the devastation of Troy, which many over the centuries have wrongly mistaken for "fiddling" while Rome burned in the year 64 AD. Nevertheless, with much of central Rome smoldering in burnt ruins, Nero, employing extremely poor judgment, decided to build a "Golden House"--the Domus Aurea--for his pleasure. Such excess angered the common people of Rome. But such narcissism also enraged many high-ranking members of Nero's court, who worried for their professional and personal well-being under the ever more irrational Nero.

Thus a conspiracy to remove the emperor and replace him with Gaius Calpurnius Piso, a prosperous senator, was planned and nearly succeeded. It was at the last moment that a freed slave named Milichus learned of the conspiracy. His wife insisted that he tell Nero's secretary.  After learning of the plot, Nero executed several important Romans, and forced the philosopher Seneca the Younger, the poet Lucan, and the writer Petronius to take their own lives, for they were suspects in the intrigue. Nero felt deeply that he was only spared because of the intervention of the gods. Jupiter the Guardian was given credit for saving Nero's neck. On the coin being offered, next to the seated Jupiter, is found "CVSTOS"--one who preserves and saves. But this was just a respite, for Nero killed himself on June 9, 68 AD, to avoid being executed as a public enemy of Rome.