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