Nero Bronze As, RIC I (second edition) Nero 477

Monetary Context and the Neronian Currency Reform

During the first ten years of the principate of Nero (AD 54 to 68), imperial base-metal currency production was essentially dormant at official western facilities. The monetary supply across Italy and the western provinces relied heavily on surviving Julio-Claudian issues, supplemented by local cast imitations and countermarked coins circulating since the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. In approximately AD 64, Nero enacted a far-reaching overhaul of the imperial monetary system that reshaped the standards and denominations of Roman coinage. In precious metals, the reform reduced the gross weights of the gold aureus and silver denarius while lowering the fineness of the denarius to roughly eighty percent silver, thereby producing significant fiscal surpluses for the imperial treasury in the wake of the Great Fire of Rome. Equally transformative was the restructuring of base-metal coinage. The reform saw an ambitious attempt to unify aes denominations around orichalcum (a bright brass alloy composed of copper and zinc), introducing brass asses, semisses, and quadrantes alongside the traditional orichalcum sestertius and dupondius. However, the production of the as quickly bifurcated. While the mint of Rome experimented with brass asses bearing value marks and distinctive radiance, the western branch mint at Lugdunum struck enormous quantities of asses in unalloyed red copper following the traditional weight standard of approximately one-forty-eighth of a Roman pound (roughly 10.5 to 11.0 grams). Type RIC I (second edition) Nero 477 belongs directly to this prolific copper series, providing the western commercial economy and the military zones of the Rhine frontier with reliable small change authorized under senatorial decree.

Production Standards and the Lugdunum Mint

The attribution of RIC 477 to Lugdunum is supported by consistent numismatic research established by Harold Mattingly and further refined by C. H. V. Sutherland. In the early Julio-Claudian period, Lugdunum had served as the premier western imperial mint for gold and silver; under Nero, it was reactivated on a grand industrial scale to relieve the central mint at Rome of the monumental task of providing base-metal currency to Gaul, Britain, and Germania. Operating concurrently with Rome between roughly AD 64 and AD 67, the Lugdunum mint maintained distinct stylistic and technical practices. Technically, the Lugdunum copper as issues were struck on cast flans prepared with consistent bevelled edges and careful weight controls, typically falling between 10.0 and 11.5 grams with diameters ranging from 27 to 30 millimeters. Die axes were predominantly aligned at six o'clock or twelve o'clock, reflecting the tight mechanical discipline of Roman mint workshops. The most explicit diagnostic signature of Lugdunum die cutters during this phase was the deliberate addition of a tiny globe positioned at the point of the neck truncation on the emperor's portrait. Numismatists have noted that this small globe served as an internal administrative or artistic device denoting the western mint's output, distinguishing Lugdunum products from those generated by the primary urban workshops at Rome.

Obverse Iconography and Artistic Style

The obverse of RIC 477 presents a striking, realistic portrait of Nero, shown bare-headed and facing right. The treatment of the imperial head reflects the mature phase of Neronian portraiture, which discarded the idealized, youthful classicism of his early reign in favor of a heavy, fleshy, and highly individualized rendering. The neck is depicted thick and muscular, with full jowls and a stepped arrangement of deeply engraved curls projecting forward over the forehead and cascading down the nape, characteristic of the 'coma in gradus formata' style associated with the emperor's later years. Beneath the neck truncation sits the characteristic small globe. Far from an accidental flaw, this globe is an intentional element of the die engraving. While serving administratively to identify the mint of Lugdunum, the globe held potent cosmic and geopolitical symbolism, evoking the emperor's role as cosmic ruler and guarantor of worldwide peace and territorial security. The relief is typically bold, executed with high artistic skill by western engravers who closely mirrored the official models transmitted from the imperial court in Rome while retaining a slightly broader, flatter relief and crisper lettering.

Reverse Design: Victory with the Inscribed Shield

The reverse iconography of RIC 477 displays the goddess Victory (Victoria), winged and draped, advancing briskly toward the left. In both hands, she elevates a large round or oval votive shield that bears the inscribed legend S P Q R (Senatus Populusque Romanus). Her drapery is rendered with dynamic flow, rippling behind her legs to emphasize forward motion, while her feathered wings extend vertically into the upper field. In the open fields to the left and right of the figure, the large letters S and C (Senatus Consulto) are prominently displayed. This reverse type represents a prominent motif across Neronian aes coinage. The motif of Victory bearing a shield connects directly to the Augustan tradition of the clipeus virtutis (shield of virtue), voted by the Senate to Augustus and displayed in the Curia Julia. Under Nero, the image celebrated Roman military triumphs and imperial security, specifically referencing the negotiated settlements and military successes achieved by Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo against the Parthian Empire over the client kingdom of Armenia in AD 63. Rather than depicting explicit battlefield violence, the design emphasizes the enduring political harmony between the princeps, the Senate, and the Roman people through divine favour.

Epigraphic Evidence and Inscriptions

The inscriptions on RIC 477 are executed in crisp, classical Latin lapidary capitals, characteristic of the refined epigraphic style developed under the Neronian currency reforms. The obverse legend reads unbroken around the circumference: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER P M TR P IMP P P. This dense sequence of imperial nomenclature and official titles expands to 'Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate, Imperator, Pater Patriae.' The formulation records the core constitutional prerogatives of the princeps. 'P M' designates his supreme religious authority as Pontifex Maximus; 'TR P' references his tribunician power renewed annually; 'IMP' appears as an imperial title; and 'P P' marks his honorific status as Father of the Country (Pater Patriae), which Nero formally accepted in AD 55. The reverse carries two distinct textual components: the institutional formula 'S C' in the field, denoting 'Senatus Consulto' ('By decree of the Senate'), and the inscription within the shield, 'S P Q R', reading 'Senatus Populusque Romanus' ('The Senate and the Roman People'). The presence of S C on western base-metal issues affirmed that, while coined under imperial administrative direction at Lugdunum, the bronze denominations retained their formal legal sanction grounded in traditional republican and Augustan constitutional norms.

Typological Variations and Chronological Placement

Within Sutherland's revised classification in the Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC I, second edition), type 477 is situated among the vast copper as issues of Lugdunum's second base-metal series, dated between AD 64 and AD 67. The type is precisely defined by the specific combination of a bare head facing right with the globe at the neck point, the comprehensive obverse titulature ending in P P, and the Victory advancing left holding the S P Q R shield. Related contemporary types within the Lugdunum series include RIC 478, which presents the head of Nero facing left (likewise with the terminal globe), and RIC 541 through 544, where the obverse bust is adorned with a laurel wreath rather than appearing bare. At Rome, parallel Victory types were struck without the neck globe, sometimes in orichalcum with mark-of-value indicators, or in copper with marginally divergent obverse title breaks. Because Nero's base-metal coinage at Lugdunum omitted explicit numbered iteration counts for the tribunician power (Tribunicia Potestas), exact single-year dating remains elusive. However, hoard evidence and the inclusion of the imperial salutation IMP and the title P P consistently place the heavy output of RIC 477 between late AD 64 and the onset of the western revolts of Julius Vindex in early AD 68.

Distribution, Hoards, and Circulation Life

The copper asses of Lugdunum represented the primary commercial lifeblood of the northwestern Roman provinces during the final years of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and well into the Flavian period. Archaeological excavations across Gaul, Britain, and the German military frontiers consistently reveal that Lugdunum asses far outnumbered contemporary Rome-mint issues in western site finds. Hoards from military castra along the Rhine limes, such as Vetera and Novaesium, as well as civilian settlements in Gallia Belgica and Britannia, demonstrate that RIC 477 was rapidly integrated into army pay and interprovincial trade. The durability of these heavy copper asses ensured an extended circulation lifespan. Many examples remained in active circulation for decades, frequently appearing in mixed contexts alongside Flavian and Trajanic bronze coins. Over their prolonged use, specimens routinely incurred severe edge wear, surface abrasion, and occasionally countermarks applied during the civil conflicts of AD 68 to 69 (the Year of the Four Emperors) by regional commanders seeking to revalidate or alter the authority of Neronian currency. The ubiquitous presence of RIC 477 in western deposits underscores the complete success of the Lugdunum mint in stabilizing regional currency after a prolonged mid-first-century coin shortage.

References

1. Le Monnayage de l'Atelier de Lyon: Des Origines au Retrait de l'Or et de l'Argent sous Caligula, complété par les émissions de bronze de Néron. pp. 135-150
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume I: Augustus to Vitellius. pp. 260-271
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC I (second edition) Nero 477. Type ric.1(2).ner.477
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume I: From 31 BC to AD 69 (revised edition). p. 177, no. 477
5. Roman History and Coinage, 44 BC - AD 69. pp. 100-112