I don't like when dealers have them under Roman republic in catalogs or on line, cause I dont collect Republican coins. This forces me to go to the republican area in a catalog, and it s not Augustus under empire section either. So I guess they are correct, and I have learned about some cool early Octavian AR's that way also, its all good.
The Empire started in 27BC, coincident with
Octavian changing
his title to
Augustus and the related constitutional reforms. This
Octavian quinarius, like it or not, is a
Roman Republican type - struck under
Octavian's Imperium, after
Actium but whilst he was
still acting in an
Imperatorial role. Many collectors compensate for these overlaps - with Imperial collectors sometimes collecting all the coins of
Octavian and
Republican collectors sometimes collecting all the coins of
Augustus.
It's well proven by now that the
CAESAR DIVI F types of
Octavian were struck before
Actium, i.e. as the same time as
Mark Antony's
legionary coins. Certainly these are
Republican. Here are the
CAESAR DIVI F types:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahala_rome/sets/72157615999739661/detail/The post-Actium
types mainly are inscribed
IMP CAESAR. But they are
still Republican coins, in fact they coincide with the coinage of Scarpus (certainly a
Republican Imperator). You can see the
types here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahala_rome/sets/72157616090224772/detail/Note I include Scarpus'
types, as well as the Alexandrian
types of
Octavian (as he then was) when he was holed up in
Alexandria. These coins may even have preceded
Cleopatra's suicide. They are very
rare - much rarer than
Cleopatra's own coins. Only a single coin
type - the
aureus at the end of the set - acknowledges the new order and includes the new title "
Augustus". Then
Octavian shut down
his Imperatorial mint, not to resume coin production under
his own name for a long time.
