The Obverse here places Nero in the ascendancy, with the Legend - NERO CLAVD DIVI F CAES AVG GERM IMP TR P COS - stressing his connection to Claudius and appending the raft of imperial titles and powers, including his Tribunician Power and his holding of the consulship. 
The Reverse's Legend - AGRIPP AVG DIVI CLAVD NERONIS CAES MATER EX S C - is entirely that of Agrippina: 'Agrippina Augusta, wife of the Deified Claudius, mother of Nero Caesar: by decree of the Senate'. The central design is that of an elephant-drawn quadriga...
...carrying figures of the Deified Augustus and Deified Claudius, both with radiate crowns. The connection of Nero to both halves of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, by blood and by adoption, is made obvious here.
This coin shows a distinct change in presentation from the better known coin with Nero's and Agrippina's busts facing one another on the Obverse, which had been issued within months of Nero's accession - as can be seen from the Reverse Legend which...
Image: RIC Nero 1- Aureus
Image: RIC Nero 1- Aureus
...does not list the Consulship among his official titles. Moreover, on this latter coin it is Agrippina's Legend that is given on the Obverse. The issue of the coin of AD 55 perhaps owes more to Ptolemaic numismatics than Roman.
Jugate coins such as this are relatively uncommon in Roman coinage, but are more familiar from the coinage of the Ptolemies, such as this example - a silver tetradrachm of Ptolemy IV Philopator, ca. 221-205 BC.
Image: ANS 1944.100.77209
Image: ANS 1944.100.77209
For more on the coinage of Nero, see:
Hekster, Olivier, et al. “Making History with Coins: Nero from a Numismatic Perspective.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 45, no. 1, 2014, pp. 25–37.
jstor.org/stable/43829562
#ACOTD #Nero
Hekster, Olivier, et al. “Making History with Coins: Nero from a Numismatic Perspective.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 45, no. 1, 2014, pp. 25–37.
jstor.org/stable/43829562
#ACOTD #Nero
