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 the daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, the elder sister of Octavian. She was raised in the imperial household and, in 16 BC, married Nero Claudius Drusus, the younger brother of Tiberius, who would go on to campaign successfully in Germania. Although they had several children, only three survived to adulthood. In many ways, Antonia’s life was marked by tragedy. She never knew her father; her husband died in 9 BC after a riding accident; her eldest son, Germanicus, was likely poisoned in 19; and in 31, she reportedly starved her daughter, Livilla, to death after discovering her involvement in a failed plot to overthrow Tiberius. She also held deep disdain for her youngest son, Claudius, whom she believed intellectually deficient. When her grandson Caligula became emperor in 37, he is said to have treated Antonia with such disrespect that she took her own life later that year. Claudius, despite the coldness he had experienced from his mother, would later honor her with the title of Augusta and commemorate her on his coinage.