Faustina Filia Flyspecking -- CONCORDIA variant

I have a subcollection of Antonine women that keeps me on the lookout for scarce or rare variants. I acquire them when I am able and today I acquired this beauty. It is actually quite scarce, with only three other examples to be found at acsearchinfo and one at OCRE (not in Wildwinds):


Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman AR Denarius, 2.84 g, 18.5 mm, 6 h.
Rome, AD 150-152, under Antoninus Pius.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL, bare-headed and draped bust right.
Rev: CONCORDIA, Concordia standing facing, head left, holding skirt and cornucopiae.
Refs: RIC III 501 (Pius); BMCRE 1078 note (Pius); Cohen/RSC 46; RCV --; CRE 166; ERIC II --.

At first glance, this doesn't appear to be anything different than this one, the first coin of Faustina II I ever purchased:


Faustina Jr, AD 147-175.
Roman AR denarius, 2.97 g, 18.5 mm, 6 h.
Rome, AD 152-154.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVG AN-TONINI AVG PII FIL, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: CONCORDIA standing facing, head right, gathering up skirt and holding cornucopiae.
Refs: RIC 500b,6; BMCRE 1078-79; Cohen 44, CRE 163.
Notes: RIC erroneously describes the obverse legend as reading FAVSTINAE AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL; this is corrected by BMCRE 4.

But if you look closely, you'll see that Concordia's head faces left in the first example and right in the second example.

Four varieties of this denarius have been described, of which I believe only three actually exist. These are:

1. CONCORDIA standing facing, head LEFT, gathering up skirt and holding cornucopiae

--obverse inscription FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL (RIC 501; BMCRE --; Cohen 46, CRE 166; FIRST EXAMPLE)

CNG dates this coin to AD 150-152, whereas Sear dates the right-facing version of the coin to AD 152-154. I'm not sure how much stock to put into the dating of these issues, however, because they are undated and this is far from certain.

2. CONCORDIA standing facing, head RIGHT, gathering up skirt and holding cornucopiae

--obverse inscription FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL (RIC 500b,6; BMCRE 1078-79; Cohen 44, CRE 163; SECOND EXAMPLE)

3. CONCORDIA standing facing, head RIGHT, gathering up skirt and holding cornucopiae

--obverse inscription FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL (RIC 500b,3; BMCRE 1085; Cohen 42; CRE 164; THIRD EXAMPLE, BELOW):


Faustina Jr, AD 147-175.
Roman AR denarius, 3.03 g, 17.3 mm, 7 h.
Rome, AD 152-154.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: CONCORDIA standing facing, head right, gathering up skirt and holding cornucopiae.
Refs: RIC 500b,3; BMCRE 1085; Cohen 42, CRE 164.
Notes: This is an obverse die match to the British Museum specimen:


4. CONCORDIA standing facing, head RIGHT, gathering up skirt and holding cornucopiae

--obverse inscription FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG F (RIC 500c; BMCRE 1085 note; Cohen --; CRE --; I do not believe this exists, RIC and BMCRE cite only a single source (ASFN 1885, p. 215), and no examples are to be found at: acsearchinfo, coin archives, CNG archives, wildwinds, OCRE or the Coin Project. I believe the ASFN catalog likely incorrectly described the specimen).

Post comments and anything you feel is relevant!

 

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Interesting thread, the OP coin is beautiful. I think overall the Concordia with the standing reverse is less common than the seated reverse for her.
I have this example with head right:

 

That's lovely, @arizonarobin !

 

You had my attention at flyspecking. Great post.

 

That's a beauty of a coin, regardless of the detail that makes it a rare variant. Really attractive portrait, and the kind of impressionistic reverse that I enjoy most. The left facing detail is the cherry on the cake.

 

@Roman Collector, great coin and I will be looking more carefully at the left and right facing on my reverses. I have one like your right facing - although up close this is a faceless concordia.

Faustina II, AD 147-175
Roman AR Denarius, 2.79 g, 17.9 mm
Rome, AD 150-152, under Antoninus Pius.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL, bare-headed and draped bust right.
Rev: CONCORDIA, Concordia standing facing, head left, holding skirt and cornucopiae.
Refs: RIC III 501 (Pius); BMCRE 1078 note (Pius); Cohen/RSC 46

 

Nice!