Faustina Friday – Late Denarius Types with Early Obverse Legends

You know what that means! TGIFF!!

Today we're going to talk about obverse legends and why using them to date coins has its pitfalls. For example, we have seen how the FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL legend was used at two different times on the early coinage for Faustina the Younger. This reuse of an old legend occurs on coins issued for her mother, too.

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[1] 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."[2] 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."[3] 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."[4]

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."[5]

End portion of aureus series 2, Beckmann (2012), demonstrating the reappearance of the obverse inscription DIVA AVG FAVSTINA.​

In addition, he discovered three other obverse dies with the same inscription and bust style, all linked together, in a separate group outside the main die-link chain.

Aureus group 9, Beckmann (2012), demonstrating three obverse dies bearing the obverse inscription DIVA AVG FAVSTINA and of the same reverse type as the example in aureus series 2, above.​

Beckmann also identified the same phenomenon on certain denarii:

The silver coinage of the 150s has similar characteristics to the gold. As on the gold, AVG(usta) returns on some rare obverse dies. These are easily identified as later issues since the bust and its drapery are much larger than on the issues of the early 140s and since they employ reverse types that are exclusive to the later issues as well.[6]​

"So you're saying that some coins of the later 150s used obverse legends from the early 140s?"



Yes, it's an anachronism.



Here are some denarii in my collection that feature the same reverse type but different obverse inscriptions, one with the typical DIVA FAVSTINA legend of the 150s, and another with the reintroduced DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend that had been in use from 140 to 145.

The first of these features the legend AETERNITAS and a goddess who is not easily identified.[7] Because the middle of her body is sown with stars, Aeternitas is the most appropriate identification.[8]

Faustina I, AD 138-140.
Roman AR Denarius, 3.47 g, 18.1 mm, 6 h.
Rome, c. AD 155-161.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, diademed and draped bust right.
Rev: AETER-NITAS, Aeternitas (?) standing front, head right, right hand drawing back fold of veil and holding transverse scepter in left; the middle of her body is seen bare, sown with stars.
Refs: RIC 346a; BMCRE * p. 54; Cohen 40; Strack 449; RCV --; CRE 144.
Notes: Mattingly errs in BMCRE. BMC 352 is a specimen of this coin. The curators have corrected this in the online citation at the British Museum website. A very rare variety of this coin (BMCRE 487) features the dative case inscription DIVAE FAVSTINAE.​

Faustina I, AD 138-140.
Roman AR Denarius, 3.40 g, 16.3 mm, 6 h.
Rome, c. AD 155-161.
Obv: DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust right.
Rev: AETER-NITAS, Aeternitas (?) standing front, head right, right hand drawing back fold of veil and holding transverse scepter in left; the middle of her body is seen bare, sown with stars.
Refs: RIC 346b; BMC 280-84; Cohen 41; RCV --; CRE 145.​

Another type is the CONSECRATIO issue featuring a goddess standing, raising her right hand and holding a short torch. The identity of the goddess on this issue has confounded numismatists over the years.[9] Because the goddess carries a torch, one of the attributes of Ceres, I accept Mattingly's identification of the goddess here as Ceres.

Faustina Senior, AD 138-140.
Roman AR denarius, 3.07 g, 18.6 mm, 5h.
Rome, c. AD 155-161.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: CONSECRATIO, Ceres (?) standing left, raising right hand and holding short torch in left.
Refs: RIC 382b; BMCRE 467-69; Cohen 165; Strack 452; RCV 4593; CRE 86.
Notes: Cohen erroneously describes the specimen in the BnF as having a veiled bust, though Strack describes the same specimen correctly. RIC cites Cohen’s description of the bust type uncritically, which is corrected in BMCRE.​

Faustina Senior, AD 138-140.
Roman AR denarius, 3.06 g, 17.5 mm, 5h.
Rome, c. AD 155-161.
Obv: DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: CONSECRATIO, Ceres (?) standing left, raising right hand and holding short torch in left.
Refs: RIC 382a; BMCRE 301; Cohen 166; Strack 424; RCV –; CRE 87.​

Note that the bust and its drapery on these dies from the late 150s are much larger than on the issues of the early 140s, such as this PIETAS issue. On the later dies, the bust and drapery take up nearly the entire vertical diameter of the flan.

Faustina I, AD 138-140.
Roman AR denarius, 2.29 g, 18.6 mm, 8 h.
Rome, AD 140-141.
Obv: DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: Pietas, veiled and draped, standing left, dropping incense on lighted altar with right hand and holding box in left hand.
Refs: RIC 394a; BMCRE 311-314; RSC/Cohen 234; Strack 428; RCV 4598; CRE 114.​

Thank you for reading. Comments and questions are welcome. As always, post anything you feel is relevant!

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Notes

1. Strack, Paul L., Untersuchungen zur Römischen Reichsprägung des Zweiten Jahrhunderts, vol. 3, Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius. Stuttgart 1937.

2. Mattingly, Harold, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. Introduction, indexes and plates. London, BMP, 1968, p. 42.

3. Mattingly, op. cit., p. lxi.

4. Beckmann, Martin. Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces. American Numismatic Society, 2012, p. 51.

5. Beckmann, op. cit., p. 71 and Die Charts 2 and 7.

6. Beckmann, op. cit., p. 71.

7. Cohen: Aeternitas (or Pudicitia?). Strack: Pudicitia. RIC: Juno? BMCRE: Juno? (or Venus?). Temeryazev and Makarenko: Venus.

8. Mattingly, op. cit., p. lx.

9. Cohen: Pietas (or Vesta?). Strack: Aeternitas. Mattingly: Ceres. Temeryazev and Makarenko: Ceres.