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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 5139469, member: 75937&quot;]While browsing online for coins of Faustina II and her mother, I was struck by the bust type on this sestertius, for it depicted the empress in the final coiffure of her life (this hairstyle persists on coins issued posthumously in her honor) but wearing a stephane. This was a bust type I had never seen before. Typically, when she is depicted with a stephane, it is on coins issued much earlier, with various, but different, coiffures. Moreover, it was a reverse type I did not possess in any denomination. I HAD to acquire such a coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1207708[/ATTACH] </p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Faustina II, AD 147-175.</font></p><p><font size="3">Roman orichalcum sestertius, 25.68 g, 32.3 mm, 1 h.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rome, AD 170-175.</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, Bust of Faustina II, draped and wearing stephane, right.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev: DIANA LVCIFERA S C, Diana standing right, holding lighted torch in both hands.</font></p><p><font size="3">Refs: RIC 1631; BMCRE 901; Cohen 91; RCV 5272 var. (no stephane); MIR 8-6/10c diad.</font></p><p><font size="3">Notes: Obverse die-match to the British Museum specimen.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>I wasn&#039;t thrilled with its rough surfaces and worn reverse legend, however. So, before buying it, I thought I&#039;d poke around the internet and look for a better example. I did searches at biddr and Emax.Bid to see if any were in upcoming auctions, looked at CNG, FORVM, and VCoins. Tried eBay. Nothing. It looked like this was my only opportunity to buy one at this time.</p><p><br /></p><p>But was the price right? I went to acsearchinfo and coinarchives to see what recent hammer prices have been and I could only find examples of the coin with the plain bust, without the stephane.</p><p><br /></p><p>At this point, I realized the coin is quite rare. I poked around a little further. It was not to be found at Wildwinds, The Coin Project, or coinscatalog.com. The single <a href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1631" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1631" rel="nofollow">OCRE example</a> turned out to be the <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-14292" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-14292" rel="nofollow">specimen in the British Museum</a>, to which mine is an obverse die-match:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1205816[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin is not listed in the antiquarian catalogs of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=0LpSAAAAcAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=gbs_ge_summary_r&amp;cad=0#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://books.google.com/books?id=0LpSAAAAcAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=gbs_ge_summary_r&amp;cad=0#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">Wiczay</a> or <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Q19RAAAAcAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Q19RAAAAcAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">Sultzer</a>. Cohen lists it as no. 91, an example in the French national collection (BnF), with an uncertain reverse legend -- he didn&#039;t know if it read DIANA LVCIF or DIANA LVCIFERA S C:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1205809[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Since the only examples online after an extensive search were the British Museum specimen and the example cited by Cohen, I figured I had better buy it -- rough surfaces notwithstanding -- because I figured I would never have another opportunity. I felt like [USER=82616]@David Atherton[/USER] when he stumbles across a rare Flavian! Is this the third known example of the coin? Possibly, but it&#039;s impossible to know if another resides in a museum that does not contribute to OCRE or in private hands.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Post your Faustinas wearing a stephane, coins with an unusual bust type, coins with Diana Lucifera, or anything you feel is relevant! </i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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