The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal ... - IndianCoins.org

68 E. A. SYDENHAM.mint of Lugdunum occurred about the year 15B.C.Henceforth, instead of issuing gold and silver coinsintermittently, its operation becomes regular and continuous.That is to say, the imperial mint, instead ofbeing shifted from place toplace, now became fixedpermanently at Lugdunum. At the same time theissue of brass and copper in Rome was entrusted tothe senate. The significance of this readjustment isthat, from this date until the end of the reign ofTiberius, the imperial gold and silver were strucksolely at Lugdunum, and it was not until the time ofCaligula that the emperor so far encroached upon theprivilege of the senate as to strike gold and silver inRome itself.Strabo, writing in the reign of Tiberius, c. A.D. 19,gives confirmation to the statement by saying thatthere was a mint at Lugdunum for coining gold andsilver [Strabo, Geogr. iv, c. 3, 2].We have evidence,too, that a " Cohors urbana " was stationed atLugdunum throughout the first century, and the mostreasonable explanation of its continued presence inthe city is that it was there to guard the mint.Both Mr. Grueber and Sig. Laffranchi agree inassigning to Lugdunum the aurei and denarii whichexhibit a very distinctive portrait of Augustus. Theprofile is less regular than on the coins already described;the hair is treated as a mass of conventionallyformed curls, rather wig-like in appearance, andfrequently coarse in execution [PI. V. 11].Aboutthe year 11 B.C., a change of style is noticeable; thehair is more freely treated, and the emperor's headis crowned with the laurel wreath.The series bears the obverse legend AVCVSTVS-