Refunded Constans Solidus replaced

@Roman Collector and @Sulla80, I hope @curtislclay sees this thread and is able to comment with his own opinion. But if Lucilla was, in fact, born on 7 March 149 rather than 7 March 151, that would certainly seem to blow out of the water the theory that my Ceres & Proserpina design from TR P XIIII was intended to celebrate her birth -- regardless of whether TR P XIIII began on 25 Dec. 150 or 25 Feb. 151. Of course, it remains possible that the coin was issued to celebrate the fact that Lucilla was still alive on or about her second birthday, or perhaps after recovery from a serious illness. Both of which would be worth celebrating if Faustina's and Marcus's first two children died in infancy.

Or, it could have been issued to celebrate the birth of Faustina III in 150/151, although, given the presence of Lucilla, that birth would no longer have represented the restoration of a daughter and granddaughter to a previously childless Imperial family, and would no longer particularly fit the Ceres-Proserpina story. (Unless, once again, the occasion celebrated was not an actual birth but a recovery from illness.)

Therefore, even if Curtis's chronology regarding Lucilla's birth date is incorrect, I don't think I'm stretching unduly to try to preserve his argument for a symbolic interpretation of the portrayal of Ceres and Proserpina as some sort of representation or celebration of Faustina II and one of her daughters (either Lucilla or Faustina III). Especially given the extreme rarity in Imperial times of numismatic portrayals of those two mythological figures together, and the propensity of that particular family to represent Faustina II with one or more children on Imperial coins, I think the interpretation is still reasonable.

But I love the aureus regardless of whether it's correct!

 

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These are both truly beautiful coins!

 

Nice examples! I don't know if my coin is actually cooler than later Roman gold, but I'm glad I made the choices I did, for a cost that wasn't really that much higher. Especially because I bought it from a US dealer and didn't have to worry about all those international shipping costs and issues!

 

A truly lovely aureus! The die work is excellent, and I think the wear actually adds to the coin's charm.

As for linking the reverse to Faustina II and Lucilla, I think you put forth a pretty strong case.

 

Oh, wow, I love it! The reverse type is especially artistic, and not to mention historically interesting given the possibility that it was issued to commemorate the birth of Lucilla after the loss of an earlier daughter.

I have Demeter and Persephone together on a provincial of Tranquillina, but they're not as charmingly posed as on your coin.

TRANQUILLINA
AE23. 6.0g, 23.4mm. THRACE, Odessus, AD 241-244. Varbanov 4614 (R7); AMNG 2405. O: CAB TPANKVΛΛEINA C, diademed and draped bust right. R: ΟΔΗCCΕΙΤΩΝ, Demeter standing right, holding long torch and grain ears, facing Persephone standing left, holding patera and torch.

 

Now that is a Donna-worthy coin!

 

I could just be deceiving myself -- I'm sure there are collectors who would turn up their noses at my coin -- but I happen to agree with you. It's more "heimishe" this way, somehow. And I like the idea that someone actually used this coin almost 1,900 years ago, rather than its just being stored away in a bag somewhere after minting.

 

Given that I don't have any other coins to illustrate the earlier parts of the Ceres-Pluto-Proserpina story, here instead are some illustrations from my 1924 copy of "A Child's Book of Myths," which belonged to my father. It was both written and illustrated by the well-known children's writer Margaret Evans Price. The illustrations are very 1920s-ish!

Pluto chilling out in Hades, before he sees Proserpina:



Pluto kidnaps Proserpina



Ceres is sad:



Mercury to the rescue, sent by Jupiter:



Proserpina eating the fateful seeds:



And because the book missed its chance to depict the reunion of Proserpina and her mother, here's the scene again on my coin:


And they all lived happily ever after.

The End.

 

And here's the example from MER-RIC of what seems to be the only other Roman Imperial coin depicting Ceres (on the right) and Proserpina (on the left), issued by Claudius II Gothicus:

 

Is the snake biga coin with Ceres holding two torches part of this story?

 

I think it probably is -- she's searching for her daughter -- but I don't have one! I wish I did.

 

Wonderful illustrations!

I don't have a coin with Proserpina as the main subject, only her abduction by Hades.

Here's a painting of Proserpina by Rossetti that I have posted before. She is depicted here with the partially eaten pomegranate.

 

She looks like she'd be happier staying down in Hades with Pluto.

 

What a great new gold coin! Congratulations! I don’t own a single aureus, and I’m jealous (in a good way).

 

She was a toy mogul, too, the Price in "Fisher-Price."

 

Congratulations on another beautifull Aureus Keep it up! You are on a roll Could not think of a nicer home then your collection for such a impressive coin.....
Love your detailed writeups, very informative
John

 

I thought at first that you were kidding, but it's true! She really was the Price of Fisher-Price! I knew her only from her children's books and illustrations. Particularly the book about Greek/Roman myths, which was not only one of my favorites as a child but my introduction to the classical world, together with my grandmother taking me frequently to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And then reading Bulfinch's Mythology, cover to cover, when I was 8 or 9.

 

Instantly thought of Dylan's Freewheelin

 

..i'd give that to be true, but sounds like someones taking diplomacy lessons......thats a nice gold AP Donna!

 

A couple of additional points.

First, although the chronology of undated coins is always somewhat uncertain, it seems clear that the earliest uses of "Laetitia" ["Joy"] as a legend on Roman Imperial coins were under Antoninus Pius -- I don't believe she was used at all on Roman Republican coins -- and that the very first appearance of Laetitia, either in the legend or as a personification, may in fact have been on this aureus.

Thus, the results of searches on OCRE for (1) "Laetitia" generally, and (2) "Laetitia" on coins of Antoninus Pius specifically, with the results of both searches listed in ascending order -- see http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=laetitia and http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=antoninus+pius+laetitia -- both show this coin design first.

If anyone can find an earlier use of "Laetitia" as a legend on Imperial coinage, please let me know.

Second, other than on this coin, every use of "Laetitia" on coins of Antoninus Pius has a bust of Faustina II on the obverse (see http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=antoninus+pius+laetitia, supra), and every single coin of Marcus Aurelius using that legend depicts Faustina II on the obverse, with the exception of a single coin with Lucilla on the obverse. See http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=Marcus+aurelius+laetitia.

I think both of these points strengthen the possible identification between Faustina II and the depiction of Ceres on the reverse of this aureus, accompanied by the legend Laetitia -- regardless of which daughter is identified with the depiction of Proserpina, or the occasion for that identification.

This identification seems more likely to me than the one suggested in an article on Laetitia that I came across; see http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/laetitia.php:

"On a coin of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, who ruled 138-161 CE, the inscription on the back side refers to Laetitia and to his 4th consulship . . . though its hard to say if it refers to the Goddess of joy or just joy as a concept since She is not depicted on it; rather the grain Goddess Ceres is shown with Her daughter Proserpina (perhaps better known by their Greek equivalents Demeter and Kore or Persephone). Ceres holds wheat sheaves while Proserpina holds a pomegranate; though both are proper to those Goddesses, they are also similar to Laetitia's attributes of fruit and wheat as symbols of fertility and prosperity. In the case of Antoninus Pius, the mother-daughter divine pair probably makes reference to his devotion to the Emperor Hadrian (hence the "Pius" surname), who had adopted Antoninus as his heir."

Sorry, I don't buy that anyone in Rome would have looked at Ceres and Proserpina and thought to themselves, "Oh, I know, that's really Hadrian and Antoninus Pius"! Had the two goddesses been portrayed with beards, I might think differently.