Faustina II--Look at the artistic differences between a sestertius and dupondius!

Another weekend acquisition--a sestertius of Faustina Junior. It's interesting to see the difference in detail between the devices on the reverse of the sestertius compared to the smaller dupondius (even taking into account the greater wear on the dupondius). On the dupondius, the celator just indicated the children's heads with circles, which float above their stylized bodies in the absence of necks. On the larger sestertius, however, the children are well-rendered and their clothes have pleats and other details. Truly outstanding engraving on the reverse die:


Faustina Jr, under Marcus Aurelius, AD 161-175
Roman orichalcum sestertius; 26.31 g, 29 mm, 12 h
Rome, AD 161-175
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right
Rev: IVNONI LVCINAE, Juno standing left between two children, holding a third child on left arm
Refs: RIC 1649; BMCRE 918; Cohen 136; RCV 5277; MIR 18.

If it looks familiar, it's the companion piece to another recent acquisition, this dupondius:


Faustina Jr, under Marcus Aurelius, AD 161-175
Roman orichalcum dupondius; 13.23 g, 25.1 mm, 6 h
Rome, AD 161-175
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right
Rev: IVNONI LVCINAE, Juno standing left between two children, holding a third child on left arm
Refs: RIC 1650; BMCRE p. 541, *; Cohen 137; RCV 5298; MIR 18.

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And while there is no denarius for this empress portraying the exact same reverse design, there is this similar one, which, as expected, portrays the rug rats with disembodied circles for heads:

 

Nice addition, RC.

 

Faustina Jr sure was prolific in popping out the little emperors! I wonder if any other empresses has as many children or if she wins the award for fertility.

 

Nice coins @Roman Collector - thanks for sharing.

 

Great catch, congrats Roman.
different hairstyle , different reverse:

 

Those are very nice coins! i still need an example of her in my collection, so i'm looking and bidding on a few most every week of her. @TIF ..><.. i don't guess she was too worried about them killing each other at that time, anyway.

 

@ 13 offspring, i think she takes the cake.

 

Just got 2 Faustina II sestertii with all the kids, TEMPOR FELICI reverse. One with pearls one with a stephane bust. Most, but not all heads attached:




Then the rarity I am going to retire on, the denarius with a headless baby:

 

Not headless headless, just decapitated. See that round thing between the babies?

 

For fun, here's another of the Faustina rug rat types from sestertius to denarius, comparing the sizes.

 

I don't recall where I got the information from, but someone identified the Antonine rugrats with Pietas on this A-Pi sestertius as Faustina II's daughters, Faustina and Lucilla, and newborn Fadilla.


ANTONINUS PIUS
AE Sestertius. 27.24g, 32mm. Rome mint, AD 158-159. RIC 1002. O: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XXII, laureate head right. R: PIETATI AVG COS IIII, Pietas standing facing, head left, globe extended in right, child in left arm, flanked by a child on each side at her feet; S-C across field.

 

I think we need to take this with a grain of salt. If true, that raises the issue of whether we truly understand the whole chronology of the issues of Faustina II. Traditionally (and it still represents the consensus of scholarly opinion), coins of Faustina II bearing some variation of the legend FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL (Faustina Augusta, daughter of Pius Augustus) are believed to have been issued under the authority of her father when her husband was Caesar (from AD 147-161), while coins with the legend FAVSTINA AVGVSTA alone were issued after Pius' death under Marcus Aurelius as Augustus (AD 161-175).

Now, the two children standing next to Fecunditas/Faustina on the reverse of this FECVND AVGVSTAE issue of Faustina Jr have also been postulated to be Faustina III and Lucilla:






Here's what we know about Faustina's kids:

- Her first child was a daughter, Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina (called Faustina III; some sources call her Domitia Faustina. It's confusing), born November 30, 147 AD.
- Titus Aurelius Antoninus ("Antoninus" #2) and his twin brother Titus Aelius Aurelius ("Aelius" #3) were her second and third children. The birth of the two boys in AD 149 was commemorated on coins with the legend temporum felicitas ("happiness of these times"), because their birth meant that dynastic continuity was guaranteed. In ancient Rome, that was another way of saying that a civil war was averted. Antoninus must have been the elder of the two, because Marcus Aurelius gave this name to the son who he believed would be his successor. However, Aelius died within a year, and Antoninus appears to have died soon after. The evidence is, again, coinage: there is a coin that shows Faustina III and Antoninus; the next coin shows Faustina III alone. There is nothing exceptional to this: infant mortality was high in pre-industrial societies. Aelius and Antoninus were buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian.
- Gemellus Lucillae (#4) and his younger twin sister Lucilla (#5) were born in March, AD 150; he died later that year
- Titus Aelius Antoninus (#6) was born and died in 152
- Annia Aurelia Fadilla, most commonly known as Fadilla (#7), was born in AD 159
- Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor (#8), was born in AD 160
- Of the twins born in 162, the elder (#9) was called Titus Aurelius Fulvius Antoninus and the younger (#10) Lucius Aurelius Commodus. Titus died in AD 165
- Marcus Annius Verus (#11) was born in late AD 162
- Hadrianus, the youngest son (#12), was born about AD 165
- Vibia Aurelia Sabina was the youngest child (#13), a daughter, born in AD 170

Thats THREE SETS OF TWINS in TEN PREGNANCIES.

So, the ones that were still alive when Fadilla were born were Faustina III (11-1/2 years old) and Lucilla (age 9). That would put the Antoninus Pius coin at AD 159, consistent with the titulature TR P XXII COS IIII. That's why these particular kids are thought to be the ones portrayed on the Pius coin. Yet the kids at Pietas' feet look younger than this, don't they? I mean, Faustina III would be in her pre-pubertal growth spurt and nearly as tall as her mother.

But look at how similar the OP coin is to the Antoninus Pius one. This raises the question of whether it was issued simultaneously. If so, then coins of Faustina bearing the legend FAVSTINA AVGVSTA would have been issued while Marcus Aurelius was still Caesar and Antoninus Pius was still alive. Scholars are not willing to make this conclusion.

So, I'm skeptical about whether the children on these coins are meant to represent actual members of the imperial family.

 

Thanks for that breakdown and bringing up the point about the FAVSTINA AVGVSTA issues. I agree that matching random rugrats that show up on any of our coins to actual rulers' children may be taking the idea a little too far. Still, if I imagine a Roman of the day looking at my coin in the same year it was minted, with just a small stretch of the imagination, I can easily see them making the same connection between about the figures represented on the coin and the royal mum and the kids she had with her at the time. Whether or not it was mere coincidence at work, still pretty cool, no?

 

Lots of good information here, well considered and presumably well researched. Another excellent thread.