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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3192854, member: 75937&quot;]I&#039;m convinced Mattingly and Seydenham erroneously carried over an error in Cohen when they described Antoninus Pius RIC 382b, a denarius of Faustina I depicting Ceres standing facing, head left, raising right hand and holding torch in left and the inscription CONSECRATIO on the reverse.</p><p><br /></p><p>RIC 382a is straightforward enough: Faustina I bare-headed and draped bust right with the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA obverse inscription:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]824642[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>As in this example in my collection:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]824645[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>But if you read carefully, RIC 382b is noted to have a veiled bust (type (b)) along with a different obverse legend, DIVA FAVSTINA:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]824647[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Mattingly and Sydenham cite Cohen, p.426, #165, which does describe the bust as &quot;voilé à droite&quot; (veiled to right):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]824649[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I believe Cohen&#039;s description -- which Mattingly and Seydenham probably did not verify -- is in error. An acsearchinfo <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Faustina+382b&amp;category=1-2&amp;en=1&amp;de=1&amp;fr=1&amp;it=1&amp;es=1&amp;ot=1&amp;images=1&amp;thesaurus=1&amp;order=0&amp;currency=usd&amp;company=" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Faustina+382b&amp;category=1-2&amp;en=1&amp;de=1&amp;fr=1&amp;it=1&amp;es=1&amp;ot=1&amp;images=1&amp;thesaurus=1&amp;order=0&amp;currency=usd&amp;company=" rel="nofollow">search for &quot;Faustina 382b&quot;</a> comes up with 22 hits, none of which has a veiled bust of the empress. All have a bare-headed bust and the inscription DIVA FAVSTINA, as in this example in my collection:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]824662[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Moreover, Mattingly, in his later publication BMCRE 4, reports three coins with this reverse type, a bare-headed bust, and obverse inscription DIVA FAVSTINA in the British Museum collection, nos. 467-469:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]824655[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Mattingly comments on the Cohen listing in a footnote about no. 467, suggesting it is a variant (obv b, the veiled bust). It isn&#039;t clear he has actually examined the coin in the French collection:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]824658[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, here&#039;s my question: is there any way to see the specimen in the Biblioteque Nationale collection that Cohen references as #165? Does anyone have a link to an example of this coin with a veiled bust?</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m of the opinion that it doesn&#039;t exist but that Cohen made an error in his catalog.</p><p><br /></p><p>As always, comments welcome! Feel free to post anything you feel is relevant![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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