Update on rare Faustina I consecration issue dupondius

Faustina Senior, AD 138-141.
Roman orichalcum dupondius, 16.19 g, 26.1 mm, 10 h.
Rome, AD 140-141.
Obv: DIVA AVGVSTA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: CONSECRATIO S C, Funeral pyre in three stories, set on base, ornamented and garlanded, surmounted by Faustina in biga right.
Refs: RIC 1189; BMCRE p. 236 *; Cohen 187; RCV --; Strack 1238.
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This coin appears to be quite rare in the middle bronze denomination. The British Museum does not have an example and it is not to be found at Wildwinds, OCRE, The Coin Project, coinscatalog.com, in the CNG archives or on a search at acsearchinfo. RIC lists it, citing Cohen. Until recently, I had been unable to find another citation or another example anywhere online.

However, I have since been in contact with Paul Dinsdale, the author of a book in progress* about early Antonine coinage. He lists the coin as no. 018370, and notes that Strack cites examples in Paris (the specimen cited by Cohen) and Naples. Neither of these specimens are available for viewing online. Dinsdale provides an illustration, a photograph of a plaster cast of the coin from Münzhandlung Basel (Auction 1), June 28,1934, pl. 29, 1171:



I believe this is a reverse die-match to my coin:



So, that makes four known examples of the coin:

1. Paris specimen
2. Naples specimen
3. Münzhandlung Basel specimen
4. My specimen

If you are aware of any other examples of this coin, please let me know.

~~~

*Dinsdale, Paul H. Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius Caesar AD 138-161: Antonine Coinage. Leeds, Paul H Dinsdale, 2018.

 

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Good eyes there, I think you're right. I'll keep an eye out for any more in the wild.

 

a beauty it is a sestertius at the weight to see

Roman Imperial
Diva Faustina Senior (died AD 140/1). Æ Sestertius (26.5mm, 16.22g, 12h). Consecration issue. Rome, c. 141-6. Draped bust r., wearing tutulus of pearls on top of her head. R/ Funeral pyre in three stories, set on base, ornamented and garlanded, surmounted by Faustina in biga r. RIC III 1189a (Pius). Rare, brown patina, near VF

 

That's MY coin -- but note the auction misidentified it as a sestertius. Here it is next to a sestertius, so you can compare:

 

Roman Imperial
Diva Faustina Senior. Died AD 140/1. Æ Sestertius (34mm, 24.41 g, 12h). Consecration issue. Rome mint. Struck under Antoninus Pius, circa AD 141-146. Veiled and draped bust right, wearing tutulus of pearls on top of her head / Funeral pyre in three stories, set on base, ornamented and garlanded, surmounted by Faustina in biga right. RIC III 1135b (Pius); Banti 63. Near VF, dark brown and green patina with traces of red, some roughness. Rare.
Ex Collection of a Texas Wine Doctor (Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 400, 28 June 2017), lot 653; Superior Galleries (22 August 1994), lot 2456.

Roman Imperial
Diva Faustina Senior. Died AD 140/1. Æ Sestertius (34mm, 24.41 g, 12h). Consecration issue. Rome mint. Struck under Antoninus Pius, circa AD 141-146. Veiled and draped bust right, wearing tutulus of pearls on top of her head / Funeral pyre in three stories, set on base, ornamented and garlanded, surmounted by Faustina in biga right. RIC III 1135b (Pius); Banti 63. Near VF, dark brown and green patina with traces of red, some roughness. Rare.
Ex Collection of a Texas Wine Doctor (Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 400, 28 June 2017), lot 653; Superior Galleries (22 August 1994), lot 2456.

could be indeed a dupondius

 

That's a nice sestertius, indeed, but that one is a sestertius and mine's a dupondius.

 

thanks

 

All I know is I want one

 

..you'll have to get it from RC...i thinks he's gottem all...

 

Hi all,

First-time poster here.

I've managed to come across this particular coin via a family memeber on a recent trip to Europe, there has indeed been very little information aside from what's on this forum, so am looking to shed some more light on this.

- Does anyone have any further updates to the above as to any more specimens turning up?
- Have any of the coins we know to be in existence been PCGS graded?
- Any other sources of information?

Thanks guys.

 

Wow!! Thank you, @captnCoin , for posting that coin on this thread!! It is a very interesting development indeed!

That's an interesting find and you seem to have come across the 5th known example. At 26 mm and 12.9 g, that is indeed a medium bronze. I have taken your photos and processed them the best I could, given their limitations.


In answer to your questions, I watch the auction market closely and I have not seen another specimen appear since I posted this thread nearly four years ago.

Since I posted, however, I have been able to get a photo of the specimen in the Bibliotheque nationale de France.



Specimen in the BnF, Paris (Cohen 187). Photo in Gauthier-Dussart, Roxane, et al. "Entre Rome et Alexandrie: Le Monnayage d'antonin Le Pieux (138-161), Idéologie Du Règne et Adaptations Locales." l'Université de Montréal, 2017, Plate 92, no. 1531.

I have learned the fate of the coin from Münzhandlung Basel (Auction 1), June 28,1934, pl. 29, 1171, shown as a plaster cast in the OP. It ended up in the Yale University Art Gallery. Here is the specimen. It has quite a provenance: Evans, Lawrence, von Koblitz, and Dr. Hans Steger, to 1933; Cahn, Frankfurt, Feburary 27, 1933, cat. 80, lot 740; Erzherzog Friedrich; Munzhandlung Basel, Basel, June 27, 1934, cat. 1, lot 1171; Walter Niggeler, to 1967; Bank Leu–Munzen and Medaillen (?), and ultimately to Yale University, 2009.



I still have not been able to find a photo of the one in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, which was also cited by Strack.

And here's mine again for comparison.


Of course, none of them have been sent to third party grading services. Three are in museums (BnF, Naples, Yale) and one is in my collection. Museums don't slab the coins in their collections. With ancients, third party grading services will not grade an obvious fake, of course, but they do not guaranty authenticity. They only offer a grade. I don't need that service, either. I would grade mine as "Not as nice as the Yale specimen; A bit more worn than but with nicer surfaces and more eye-appeal than the Paris (BnF) specimen."

All of the known examples of which there are photographs -- including yours -- were struck with the same reverse die.

I believe that mine and the Yale specimen are also obverse die matches. The BnF coin and your specimen are not of a sufficient state of preservation to say whether they match the dies of the other specimens.

The fact that the coin is quite rare and all known examples of the handful that are left were struck with the same reverse die indicates a small production run of these coins, perhaps using only a single die-pair. The alternative explanation, that all four coins came from the same hoard, is extremely unlikely, given the differences in wear and patination.

If you are interested in reading more about the dating, purpose, and iconography of the issue, see my article at NVMIS FORVMS, which you are welcome to join.

 

Quite the provenance, indeed! I love seeing collection histories like that.

Some W. Niggeler coins were privately sold, but this one was indeed in the catalogs: Bank Leu - Münzen und Medaillen, Niggeler Part III, Lot 1310 (right after the Sestertius version), with no hint of prior provenance given (and it's been conserved very nicely by whoever bought it!):

https://archive.org/details/sammlungwalterni00mnze/page/n78/mode/1up

I wonder where it was between 1967 and the 2009 accession? Perhaps unsold or otherwise held onto until Leu closed for good? (The Ruth Elzabeth White Fund seems to be something else, like a fund for object photography?)

Yale Art Gallery also has >4000 coins from the P. R. Franke Collection, w year 2004 accession numbers -- i.e., his & his wife Leonore's first collection. He promptly formed another, comparably large, but of more "scholarly" character (i.e., less beautiful & valuable), auctioned in two waves by Grün & Solidus, from which I have a few.

 

Thank you for the responses and the information and do pardon the tardiness in keeping the conversation going.

Very exciting indeed to know there may be only five specimens. I shall pass this information on. I imagine he would have questions (unfortunately not the best with English) but I shall do my part in reading the related articles and translating where I can.