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<p>[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 8187683, member: 75937"]<img src="https://acegif.com/wp-content/gif/Friday-31.gif" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>TGIFF, everybody!!</p><p><br /></p><p>Today we're going to talk about obverse legends and why using them to date coins has its pitfalls. For example, <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-–-a-relative-chronology-for-the-concordia-standing-and-the-concordia-seated-issues.386459/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-–-a-relative-chronology-for-the-concordia-standing-and-the-concordia-seated-issues.386459/">we have seen</a> how the FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL legend was used at two different times on the early coinage for Faustina the Younger. More relevant to today's installment of Faustina Friday, we have seen how the <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-%E2%80%93-late-denarius-types-with-early-obverse-legends.387138/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-%E2%80%93-late-denarius-types-with-early-obverse-legends.387138/">DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend was used at two different times on the aurei and denarii for Faustina the Elder</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>This same phenomenon occurs on this reverse type, which was only issued in the middle bronze denomination. The coin bears the early DIVA AVG FAVSTINA obverse legend paired with a late reverse type.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432722[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Faustina I, AD 138-140.</font></p><p><font size="3">Roman Æ as or dupondius, 10.88 g, 25.6 mm, 6 h.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rome, later 150s AD.</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev: AETERNITAS S C, Pietas standing left, dropping incense over altar with right hand and holding incense box in left hand.</font></p><p><font size="3">Refs: RIC –; BMCRE –; Cohen –; Strack –; RCV –.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Compare it to the usual variety, which bears the later DIVA FAVSTINA obverse legend.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432723[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Faustina I, AD 138-140.</font></p><p><font size="3">Roman Æ as or dupondius, 11.92 g, 26.5 mm, 12 h.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rome, AD 153-55.</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev: AETERNITAS S C, Pietas standing left, dropping incense over altar with right hand and holding incense box in left hand.</font></p><p><font size="3">Refs: RIC 1161; BMCRE 1558; Cohen 43; RCV 4641; Strack 1271.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><b>An inventory and die study of known examples</b></p><p><br /></p><p>This reverse type was unknown until recent decades, is absent from the major museum collections of Europe and the US, and is unlisted in RIC, BMCRE, Cohen, Strack, and Sear. Our own [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER] has noted such asses have been "turning up quite frequently among coins from Bulgarian sources."[1] I have identified eight examples, struck from four obverse dies and five reverse dies, which I examine below.</p><p><br /></p><p>Obverse die 1, reverse die A:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432716[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Forvm Ancient Coins (Web Shop), 1.1.1970, lot 28948 (unfortunately this coin is no longer listed on the website).</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432719[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Auktionshaus H. D. Rauch GmbH, E-Auction 12, <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1535201" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1535201" rel="nofollow">lot 502</a>, 22 March 2013.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432722[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">The example in my collection as noted above. Zeus Web Auction 22, <a href="https://www.biddr.com/auctions/zeusnumismatics/browse?a=2244&l=2474930" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.biddr.com/auctions/zeusnumismatics/browse?a=2244&l=2474930" rel="nofollow">lot 632</a>, 23 January 2022.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Obverse die 2, reverse die B:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432717[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 130, <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=165686" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=165686" rel="nofollow">lot 2196</a>, 8 March 2004.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432715[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">CGB.fr, Monnaies 32, <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=422257" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=422257" rel="nofollow">lot 255</a>, 6 December 2007.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Obverse die 2, reverse die C:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432718[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3"><a href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s4641.t.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s4641.t.html" rel="nofollow">Wildwinds Sear 4641</a>, <a href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/faustina_I/RIC_1161.1.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/faustina_I/RIC_1161.1.jpg" rel="nofollow">example 2</a>, submitted by <a href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/faustina_I/RIC_1161.1.txt" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/faustina_I/RIC_1161.1.txt" rel="nofollow">Pegasi Numismatics 16 August 1999</a>.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Obverse die 3, reverse die D:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432721[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">TimeLine Auctions, February 2019 Antiquities & Coins Auction, <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5738738" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5738738" rel="nofollow">lot 3378</a>, 26 February 2019.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Obverse die 4, reverse die E (tooled and must be interpreted accordingly):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1432720[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Dr. Busso Peus Nachfolger, E-Auction 9, <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6103990" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6103990" rel="nofollow">lot 109</a>, 6 July 2019.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><b>The implications of this coin type and the die study</b></p><p><br /></p><p>The obverse legends used on the posthumous coinage for Faustina I fall into two broad categories:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. DIVA AVG(VSTA) FAVSTINA</p><p>2. DIVA(E) FAVSTINA(E)</p><p><br /></p><p>Both Mattingly and Strack[2] believed that the obverse inscription with the title Augusta was confined to the early issues for Diva Faustina. Specifically, Mattingly dates the coinage bearing the first inscription to "A.D. 141 and immediately afterwards."[3] He is less specific in his dating of the coinage bearing the second title but states that the title Augusta was no longer in use after AD 147, "because that title has passed on to her daughter."[4] However, Martin Beckmann, in the course of his die-linkage study of the aurei of Faustina I, determined that the movement of AVGVSTA from obverse to the reverse of Faustina I's coinage was connected to Faustina the Younger's "marriage to the young Caesar Marcus Aurelius in 145."[5]</p><p><br /></p><p>Interestingly, in the course of his die-linkage study of the aurei of Faustina I, Beckmann also discovered a very unexpected development in the obverse legend at the very end of one of the die-chains: the abbreviation AVG reappears on two dies in the chain. Beckmann dates these obverse dies to "the later 150s AD."[6] Beckmann postulates that this was a mint error. "The reason for this accident may have been that the same die engravers were responsible for the production of dies for both Diva Faustina and for her daughter Faustina the Younger, whose coins normally did bear the title Augusta. That a handful of dies bearing this title could be carved and used in production for Diva Faustina shows that control of this coinage must have become very relaxed."[7]</p><p><br /></p><p>However, Beckmann was postulating about the use of these dies in the production of aurei. And while he acknowledges a similar use of DIVA AVG FAVSTINA obverse dies in the production of denarii,[8] his die-linkage study was confined to the aurei and sestertii of Diva Faustina and the middle bronze discussed here thus falls outside of the purview of his research. One thing is clear: the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend was used in the late 150s AD on certain aurei, denarii and middle bronze issues and using multiple obverse dies and its use was no accident or one-off mint error.</p><p><br /></p><p>In conclusion, although these late issues with the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend are scarce compared to their DIVA FAVSTINA counterparts, the use of the inscription on certain issues seems to have been purposeful. What that purpose may have been, however, remains elusive. Why the two inscriptions were used concomitantly on certain issues and not others is yet another unanswered question. I wonder if, just as certain Antonine reverse types were <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-coins-of-british-association.366911/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-coins-of-british-association.366911/">issued strictly for use in Britain</a>, perhaps these DIVA AVG FAVSTINA issues were struck for use in the Balkans, where the middle bronze coins with that obverse inscription seem to be found.</p><p><br /></p><p>Everything with Faustina's coins becomes, as Alice in Wonderland says, curiouser and curiouser.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://c.tenor.com/2LzNTetS-2kAAAAC/alice-in-wonderland-alice.gif" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>As always, comments and coin photos are encouraged. Post anything you feel is relevant!</i></p><p><br /></p><p>~~~</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Notes</b></p><p><br /></p><p>1. Curtis L. Clay, <i>personal communication</i>, 23 January 2022.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Strack, Paul L., <i>Untersuchungen zur Römischen Reichsprägung des Zweiten Jahrhunderts, vol. 3, Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius</i>. Stuttgart 1937.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Mattingly, Harold, <i>Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. Introduction, indexes and plates. </i>London, BMP, 1968, p. 42.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. Mattingly, <i>op. cit</i>., p. lxi.</p><p><br /></p><p>5. Beckmann, Martin. <i>Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces.</i> American Numismatic Society, 2012, p. 51.</p><p><br /></p><p>6. Beckmann, <i>op. cit</i>., p. 71 and Die Charts 2 and 7.</p><p><br /></p><p>7. Beckmann, <i>op. cit</i>., p. 71.</p><p><br /></p><p>8. Ibid. See my previous <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-%E2%80%93-late-denarius-types-with-early-obverse-legends.387138/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-%E2%80%93-late-denarius-types-with-early-obverse-legends.387138/">discussion of these denarii at Coin Talk</a>.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 8187683, member: 75937"][IMG]https://acegif.com/wp-content/gif/Friday-31.gif[/IMG] TGIFF, everybody!! Today we're going to talk about obverse legends and why using them to date coins has its pitfalls. For example, [URL='https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-–-a-relative-chronology-for-the-concordia-standing-and-the-concordia-seated-issues.386459/']we have seen[/URL] how the FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL legend was used at two different times on the early coinage for Faustina the Younger. More relevant to today's installment of Faustina Friday, we have seen how the [URL='https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-%E2%80%93-late-denarius-types-with-early-obverse-legends.387138/']DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend was used at two different times on the aurei and denarii for Faustina the Elder[/URL]. This same phenomenon occurs on this reverse type, which was only issued in the middle bronze denomination. The coin bears the early DIVA AVG FAVSTINA obverse legend paired with a late reverse type. [ATTACH=full]1432722[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]Faustina I, AD 138-140. Roman Æ as or dupondius, 10.88 g, 25.6 mm, 6 h. Rome, later 150s AD. Obv: DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right. Rev: AETERNITAS S C, Pietas standing left, dropping incense over altar with right hand and holding incense box in left hand. Refs: RIC –; BMCRE –; Cohen –; Strack –; RCV –.[/SIZE][/INDENT] Compare it to the usual variety, which bears the later DIVA FAVSTINA obverse legend. [ATTACH=full]1432723[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]Faustina I, AD 138-140. Roman Æ as or dupondius, 11.92 g, 26.5 mm, 12 h. Rome, AD 153-55. Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right. Rev: AETERNITAS S C, Pietas standing left, dropping incense over altar with right hand and holding incense box in left hand. Refs: RIC 1161; BMCRE 1558; Cohen 43; RCV 4641; Strack 1271.[/SIZE][/INDENT] [B]An inventory and die study of known examples[/B] This reverse type was unknown until recent decades, is absent from the major museum collections of Europe and the US, and is unlisted in RIC, BMCRE, Cohen, Strack, and Sear. Our own [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER] has noted such asses have been "turning up quite frequently among coins from Bulgarian sources."[1] I have identified eight examples, struck from four obverse dies and five reverse dies, which I examine below. Obverse die 1, reverse die A: [ATTACH=full]1432716[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]Forvm Ancient Coins (Web Shop), 1.1.1970, lot 28948 (unfortunately this coin is no longer listed on the website).[/SIZE][/INDENT] [ATTACH=full]1432719[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]Auktionshaus H. D. Rauch GmbH, E-Auction 12, [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1535201']lot 502[/URL], 22 March 2013.[/SIZE][/INDENT] [ATTACH=full]1432722[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]The example in my collection as noted above. Zeus Web Auction 22, [URL='https://www.biddr.com/auctions/zeusnumismatics/browse?a=2244&l=2474930']lot 632[/URL], 23 January 2022.[/SIZE][/INDENT] Obverse die 2, reverse die B: [ATTACH=full]1432717[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 130, [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=165686']lot 2196[/URL], 8 March 2004.[/SIZE][/INDENT] [ATTACH=full]1432715[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]CGB.fr, Monnaies 32, [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=422257']lot 255[/URL], 6 December 2007.[/SIZE][/INDENT] Obverse die 2, reverse die C: [ATTACH=full]1432718[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3][URL='http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s4641.t.html']Wildwinds Sear 4641[/URL], [URL='http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/faustina_I/RIC_1161.1.jpg']example 2[/URL], submitted by [URL='http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/faustina_I/RIC_1161.1.txt']Pegasi Numismatics 16 August 1999[/URL].[/SIZE][/INDENT] Obverse die 3, reverse die D: [ATTACH=full]1432721[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]TimeLine Auctions, February 2019 Antiquities & Coins Auction, [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5738738']lot 3378[/URL], 26 February 2019.[/SIZE][/INDENT] Obverse die 4, reverse die E (tooled and must be interpreted accordingly): [ATTACH=full]1432720[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]Dr. Busso Peus Nachfolger, E-Auction 9, [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6103990']lot 109[/URL], 6 July 2019.[/SIZE][/INDENT] [B]The implications of this coin type and the die study[/B] The obverse legends used on the posthumous coinage for Faustina I fall into two broad categories: 1. DIVA AVG(VSTA) FAVSTINA 2. DIVA(E) FAVSTINA(E) Both Mattingly and Strack[2] believed that the obverse inscription with the title Augusta was confined to the early issues for Diva Faustina. Specifically, Mattingly dates the coinage bearing the first inscription to "A.D. 141 and immediately afterwards."[3] He is less specific in his dating of the coinage bearing the second title but states that the title Augusta was no longer in use after AD 147, "because that title has passed on to her daughter."[4] However, Martin Beckmann, in the course of his die-linkage study of the aurei of Faustina I, determined that the movement of AVGVSTA from obverse to the reverse of Faustina I's coinage was connected to Faustina the Younger's "marriage to the young Caesar Marcus Aurelius in 145."[5] Interestingly, in the course of his die-linkage study of the aurei of Faustina I, Beckmann also discovered a very unexpected development in the obverse legend at the very end of one of the die-chains: the abbreviation AVG reappears on two dies in the chain. Beckmann dates these obverse dies to "the later 150s AD."[6] Beckmann postulates that this was a mint error. "The reason for this accident may have been that the same die engravers were responsible for the production of dies for both Diva Faustina and for her daughter Faustina the Younger, whose coins normally did bear the title Augusta. That a handful of dies bearing this title could be carved and used in production for Diva Faustina shows that control of this coinage must have become very relaxed."[7] However, Beckmann was postulating about the use of these dies in the production of aurei. And while he acknowledges a similar use of DIVA AVG FAVSTINA obverse dies in the production of denarii,[8] his die-linkage study was confined to the aurei and sestertii of Diva Faustina and the middle bronze discussed here thus falls outside of the purview of his research. One thing is clear: the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend was used in the late 150s AD on certain aurei, denarii and middle bronze issues and using multiple obverse dies and its use was no accident or one-off mint error. In conclusion, although these late issues with the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend are scarce compared to their DIVA FAVSTINA counterparts, the use of the inscription on certain issues seems to have been purposeful. What that purpose may have been, however, remains elusive. Why the two inscriptions were used concomitantly on certain issues and not others is yet another unanswered question. I wonder if, just as certain Antonine reverse types were [URL='https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-coins-of-british-association.366911/']issued strictly for use in Britain[/URL], perhaps these DIVA AVG FAVSTINA issues were struck for use in the Balkans, where the middle bronze coins with that obverse inscription seem to be found. Everything with Faustina's coins becomes, as Alice in Wonderland says, curiouser and curiouser. [IMG]https://c.tenor.com/2LzNTetS-2kAAAAC/alice-in-wonderland-alice.gif[/IMG] [I]As always, comments and coin photos are encouraged. Post anything you feel is relevant![/I] ~~~ [B]Notes[/B] 1. Curtis L. Clay, [I]personal communication[/I], 23 January 2022. 2. Strack, Paul L., [I]Untersuchungen zur Römischen Reichsprägung des Zweiten Jahrhunderts, vol. 3, Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius[/I]. Stuttgart 1937. 3. Mattingly, Harold, [I]Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. Introduction, indexes and plates. [/I]London, BMP, 1968, p. 42. 4. Mattingly, [I]op. cit[/I]., p. lxi. 5. Beckmann, Martin. [I]Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces.[/I] American Numismatic Society, 2012, p. 51. 6. Beckmann, [I]op. cit[/I]., p. 71 and Die Charts 2 and 7. 7. Beckmann, [I]op. cit[/I]., p. 71. 8. Ibid. See my previous [URL='https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-%E2%80%93-late-denarius-types-with-early-obverse-legends.387138/']discussion of these denarii at Coin Talk[/URL].[/QUOTE]
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Faustina Friday – A Late Middle Bronze with an Early Obverse Legend
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