Antonia Minor, Augusta, 37 and 41. Dupondius (Orichalcum, 32 mm, 16.75 g, 6 h), Rome, struck under Claudius, 42-43. ANTONIA AVGVSTA Draped bust of Antonia to right. Rev. TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG P M TR P P IMP•P•P• / S - C Claudius, veiled and togate, standing front, head to left, holding simpulum in his right hand and scroll in his left. BMC 213. CBN 204. Cohen 6. RIC 104. An exceptional piece with a portrait of excellent style, very well struck on a broad flan. Minor smoothing and with light roughness on the reverse, otherwise, extremely fine.


Antonia Minor was a daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, Octavian's elder sister. She grew up in the imperial household, and in 16 BC, she married Nero Claudius Drusus, the younger brother of Tiberius, who successfully campaigned in Germania. Although they had numerous offspring, only three children would reach adulthood. In many ways, Antonia's life was tinged with tragedy. She had never known her father, her husband died in 9 BC after a riding accident, her eldest son, Germanicus, was likely poisoned in 19 AD, she starved her own daughter, Livilla, to death after a failed plot to depose Tiberius came to light in 31 AD, and she despised her youngest son, Claudius, for his apparent intellectual disability. When Caligula, her grandson, became emperor in 37 AD, he appears to have slighted Antonia to such a degree that she committed suicide that same year. Claudius, despite his mother's coldness towards him, would later grant his mother the title of Augusta and dutifully place her on his coinage.