TYPE Roman Imperatorial, Julius Caesar (63-44 BC), silver denarius, struck 47-46 BC DESCRIPTION . Obv: Diademed head of Venus to right Rev: Aeneas facing and walking to left, carrying father Anchises and palladium; legend: CAESAR REFERENCE: SR 355 GRADING: AF, toned ORDER INFO: R1759, $120 Like so many other Roman institutions that he reformed, Julius Caesar made indelible changes to Roman coinage as well. Among other things, he reversed the longstanding policy that no portraits of living persons be placed on coins. Although his images there are typically crude and ugly - showing a decrepit man in the Republican tradition of occasionally displaying masks of deceased ancestors, known as the "patrician style" - it was nonetheless to set a lasting precedent. Here we have an earlier issue, which is mostly a typical Republican denarius with mythological content (with one of the Trojan heroes from the Iliad, Aeneas, on reverse) - except for the simple, but ominous "CAESAR" inscription, which is to signify a name, title and institution that will persist on coins and otherwise (including forms such as Kaiser and Czar) through the present times.