This is a Roman coin. These large coins were not used like cash but served as memorial coins or precious gifts. Very few coins of this kind were minted: we know of only three memorial coins from Emperor Augustus’s reign, each with a different representation.

How big is it?
It is 30 mm in diameter and weighs 32 grams.

What does it show?
The obverse depicts Emperor Augustus as a young man. The leaping ram below the head is a reference to his birth sign: Capricorn. On the reverse of the coin, there is a hippopotamus, a symbol of Egypt. The legend (“Aegypto capta”) commemorates the capture of Egypt.

What is it made of?
Gold.

The inscription on the obverse tells us that the coin was minted in Augustus’s seventh year as consul, around 27 BC. It was probably made in a workshop in Pergamon.

Egypt had been under Roman rule for four years by then: Octavianus (the later Emperor Augustus) occupied the country after the battle of Actium in 30 BC.

Today, the coin is in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid (inventory number: 1921/9/1).

If you want to know more about this coin, check out the online database of the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid (it’s in Spanish).

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Crack open the Lexicon to find out
• who was → Emperor Augustus,
• what is a → consul,
• and what happened at the → battle of Actium.