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Message:: [QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 3542328, member: 75937"]Please feel free to post comments, coins erroneously described in standard references, or anything you feel is relevant! A word of caution about using old references -- even the most trusted of them can be in error. I noticed an error in the print version of Coins Of The Roman Empire In The British Museum Vol.4 (Antoninus Pius To Commodus), published in 1940. In the listing of denarii of Faustina I with the DIVA FAVSTINA obverse legend and AETERNITAS reverse legend. The catalog of the collection notes two Juno (?) standing types, listed on pp. 53-54: [ATTACH=full]941660[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]941661[/ATTACH] Here is an example of the first type (BMCRE4 345-353) from my own collection, with Juno (?), veiled and draped, standing facing, head left, raising right hand and holding scepter in left hand. [ATTACH=full]941662[/ATTACH] The second type is noted only by an asterisk after no. 353 on p. 54, indicating it does not appear in the British Museum Collection. The coin's reverse is described as Juno (?), veiled and draped, standing facing, head right, drawing back veil with right hand and holding scepter in left hand. Here's an example from my own collection: [ATTACH=full]941665[/ATTACH] Here's what BMCRE p. 54 says about the coin in the footnote: [ATTACH=full]941667[/ATTACH] It cites Cohen 40, and notes it is "apparently the same as No. 280," which has the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA obverse legend. Here's an example from my own collection: [ATTACH=full]941663[/ATTACH] So far, so good. BMCRE4 notes the existence of two coins, one with the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend and one with the DIVA FAVSTINA obverse legend, the former in the British Museum collection, the latter not in the collection, but cited by Cohen. But remember the listing for 352, under the multiple listings for the Juno (?) standing facing, head l., raising r. arm and holding scepter in l. reverse type? Let's look at it again. [ATTACH=full]941668[/ATTACH] It says "but head r."  I wanted to actually look at the example in the British Museum, so I <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?assetId=664601001&objectId=1210455&partId=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?assetId=664601001&objectId=1210455&partId=1" rel="nofollow">looked it up online at their website</a>. This is catalog No. 352 in the museum's collection: [ATTACH=full]941664[/ATTACH] Look familiar? It's the reverse type that supposedly wasn't in the British Museum collection and had to be footnoted with an asterisk and cited as Cohen 40!! The museum acquired the coin in 1877, so was in the collection when Mattingly cataloged it in 1940. It was just misdescribed as depicting Juno (?) with her right arm extended. The British Museum has since corrected the error in its online description of the coin. It describes the reverse of this coin as "Juno (?), veiled and draped, standing facing, head right, drawing back veil with right hand and holding sceptre in left hand." Moreover, the online listing cites RIC3 346a, p.69 as a reference for the type. Here's the listing in RIC3 (which was published before BMCRE4, by the way): [ATTACH=full]941669[/ATTACH] You'll note it cites Cohen 40, just as the footnote in BMCRE4 on p. 54. You'll also note that the identity of the standing female figure on the reverse is uncertain, with Juno and Venus each listed as possibilities.[/QUOTE]

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