Antoninus Pius? I love that guy!

Beautifull aureus!!!!!!!

 

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I have a few more Antoninus Pius that I haven't posted yet, first this bad boy AE Sestertius 22.5gm, RIC 598, Sear 4199. Rome 142 AD.

 

And here is a group of his Concecratio/Divo Pio AR issues, won them as a lot in an Auction.

 

Nice. The third one (with the column) is quite scarce, as I recall.

 

And this coin AE Sestertius 141 AD Rome, The temple of Roma and Venus, 32mm, 25.3gm, worn but reasonable detail of the temple.

 

Your right about that, I bought the lot of three mainly to get that, but I did not have the other two anyway.

 

Are you a Antoninus Pius collector Paul M.?

 

Yeah, I love that guy! I started the thread. I'd like to get as many different denarii of him as possible. I love that there are so many to choose from.

 

Yes I have to agree he is my favorite simply because of the range of coins and they are still affordable, I probably have more of him than the other emperors. I posted a lot of them on this thread if you want to take a look https://www.cointalk.com/threads/post-your-architecture-in-rome-coins.281422/

 

Looking through my Pius coins I seem to be drawn to coins of him as Caesar under Hadrian.

 

And on the other end of the timeline, my favorite A-Pi pickup this year, a Divus issue struck 90 years after his death.


DIVUS ANTONINUS PIUS
Died 161 AD
AR Antoninianus
4.86g, 22.6mm
Rome mint, AD 250-251, commemorative issue struck under Trajan Decius
RIC IV 90 (Trajan Decius)
O: DIVO PIO, radiate head right.
R: CONSECRATIO, lighted altar.

 

I agree these are an interesting part of numismatic history but I believe they should be studied along with the first few issues of Pius as Augustus during the period Pius was contending with the Senate over the status of the deceased Hadrian and his actions. I do not own a coin of 138 with AVG on the obverse or a coin of early 139 with AVG and COS II on the reverse. Neither do I feel 100% comfortable with the proposed order for all of these series which takes several pages in BMCRE to discuss. I do not have this volume of RIC. If you would care to detail and illustrate the whole first year with explanations of how the coins relate to historical events, I would consider it a public service.

 

I am drawn to these too Doug.... these are often tough to come by

Obv: IMP T AEL CAES HADR ANTONINVS, bare head right
Rev: AVG PIVS P M TR P COS II P P, Modius with corn ears.
Minted in Rome. A.D. 139
Reference:– cf. BMC 79 (4 corn ears and poppy, L. A. Lawrence). cf. RIC III 40 (corn ears and poppy). cf. RSC 103.

This coin doesn't show the poppy as per the BMC/RIC examples



Hmmm. I'll have to go away and do some reading on the various chronologies and see what can be done....

 

WOW !! So many interesting and eye catching examples of Antoninus!

It seems OKI has a rival(s) in specialization LOL

I'll post another rather worn sesterces with the scarce and cool chariot reverse:

 

Inspired by the fact that it will be A-Pi's birthday in a week (Sep 19th), I took mine out of their flips and envelopes for a good ol' Pius party...

 

Brilliant zumbly, great looking coins there.

 

Thanks! I used to buy coins of Pius quite avidly, but less so in the last year or two. It was nice to get them all out again.

 

Nice pig! Scattered among a thousand ordinary types, Pius has a few really special ones.

 

Here is one you don't see very often. I had this coin on my watch list at Vcoins for some time, and finally pulled the trigger on it after it went on sale for 15% off.

Seller's image:


ANTONINUS PIUS, AR denarius, 18 mm, 3.01g
Obverse: IMP CAES AEL ANTONINVS AVG, laureate head right
Reverse: PONT MAX TR POT COS, Diana standing right, holding bow and arrow.
Seller Ref: RIC III 1b; BMCRE 3 note; RSC 665a
Note: Struck July 138 AD before the consecration of Hadrian

I've verified the seller's attribution as RIC 1b using Wildwinds (I really need to get myself a copy of RIC volume 3, lol). This coin was struck quite early in Antoninus' reign, since it shows him as IMP CAES AEL ANTONINVS AVG, notably omitting PIVS. That indicates that this coin was struck before the consecration of Hadrian, as that is the event which earned him the honorific.

Antoninus Pius has 4 distinct Diana reverses: this coin, RIC 7, and RIC 7a as Augustus; and RIC 447a as Caesar under Hadrian. I searched online at CNG, acsearch, and Heritage and could only come up with one example of this coin sold in the past 15 years. Only 2 examples are listed in the Reka Devnia hoard out of 7734 denarii of Antoninus Pius. To put that in some perspective, of the 54 coins of Pertianx, representing 7 distinct types, 5 of them are better represented in the R-D hoard than this coin. This coin appears to be quite rare, and will always be a highlight of my collection. I can't wait to see it in hand.

 

Congrats @Paul M. !!! I alway love the 'stories' of a particular coin...especially those not otherwise recognized as highly scarce and even rare. Wonderful denarius!!!