Like the “Twelve Caesars,” the “Twelve Labors of Hercules” is another popular collecting challenge.

A gold aureus struck during the first reign of Maximilian, A.D. 286 to 310, showed a robust reverse image of Hercules battling the Lernaean Hydra.

The obverse features a blocky and masculine head of the emperor, right, inspired by Hercules.

The energetic reverse shows a club-holding Hercules entwined with the hydra, with Heritage relating the chosen symbolism of Hercules slaying the hydra and the challenges faced by the emperor.

Struck in Rome around year 293, it was formerly in the Archer M. Huntington Collection of Roman gold coins that was at the Hispanic Society of America and sold earlier at a 2012 Numismatic Ars Classica auction.

It sold for $33,600 in Heritage’s August auction, housed in a Numismatic Guaranty Co. Ancients slab where it was graded Mint State Star, with 5/5 for strike and 4/5 for surfaces.

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