Carausius AR Denarius. Uncertain mint. 287-293 AD. 4.19g, 23mm. 

Obv: IMP CARAVSIVS P AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: CONCOR MI, two clasped hands.
Mintmark RSR. 
RIC -, Shiel -, RSC -. Webb (The Coinage of Carausius) 593 var (rev. legend).

The legend RSR was for a long time considered to be a 
mystery. Two Carausian medallions, now in the British 
Museum, were also found: one has RSR in the exergue, the 
other has INPCDA. In 1998 these letters were recognised as 
representing the sixth and seventh lines of the Fourth 
Eclogue of Virgil, which reads Redeunt Saturnia Regna, Iam 
Nova Progenies Caelo Demittitur Alto, meaning 'The Golden 
Ages are back, now a new generation is let down from Heaven 
above'. This poem was widely known in the Roman world, so 
that anyone who was literate and educated would have known 
what the initials represented. 

No other Roman emperor in history ever made such an explicit 
reference to Roman literature. It is quite extraordinary 
that in a remote province like Britain a rebel emperor 
should utilise such a method to appeal to his public. He was 
claiming to represent a revival of traditional Roman virtues 
and the great traditions of the Empire as established by 
Augustus back in the last few decades of the first century 
BC, not in Rome but in Britain. 

Sold for £ 6,500.00   US$ 10,362.57 € 7,877.36

With permission of Roma Numismatics, December, 2010