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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 4950995, member: 75937&quot;]Even a seasoned numismatist might be disinclined to obtain this coin. You might be put off by the corrosion pit below the empress&#039;s ear. You might pass on it because of its oblong flan. You might say to yourself, &quot;I&#039;ll wait for one with a more complete reverse legend.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>But you&#039;d be wrong to do so. This coin may well be only the third known example, making it a great rarity.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1190035[/ATTACH]</p><p>Faustina II, AD 147-175.</p><p>Roman Æ as or dupondius, 11.21 g, 25.2 mm, 11 h.</p><p>Rome, AD 162-164.</p><p>Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust of Faustina, right, wearing strand of pearls.</p><p>Rev: SALVTI AVGVSTAE S C, Salus standing left, feeding snake coiled round altar from patera in right hand and holding short vertical scepter in left hand.</p><p>Refs: RIC 1672; Cohen 205; BMCRE p. 542 note; RCV --; MIR --.</p><p><br /></p><p>CT member [USER=111251]@S.Triggs[/USER] found the coin earlier this year, which we discussed in <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/aurelius-family-genuine-or-fakes.356594/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/aurelius-family-genuine-or-fakes.356594/">this thread</a>. He was kind enough to sell it to me for my collection and it arrived in the mail a few days ago. The gist of the discussion was that it was known to Cohen from a single example in the Staatliches Münzkabinett in Vienna. RIC and BMCRE each cite Cohen. A <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1985-0201-152" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1985-0201-152" rel="nofollow">second example</a> was found in 1984 at Stonea Grange in Cambridgeshire, which was obtained by the British Museum, apparently with an illegible reverse legend. The coin is not photographed, unfortunately.</p><p><br /></p><p>In contrast to the version with Salus seated ...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1190043[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>... the version with Salus standing is not to be found at <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Faustina+SALVTI&amp;category=1-2&amp;en=1&amp;de=1&amp;fr=1&amp;it=1&amp;es=1&amp;ot=1&amp;images=1&amp;thesaurus=1&amp;order=0&amp;currency=usd&amp;company=" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Faustina+SALVTI&amp;category=1-2&amp;en=1&amp;de=1&amp;fr=1&amp;it=1&amp;es=1&amp;ot=1&amp;images=1&amp;thesaurus=1&amp;order=0&amp;currency=usd&amp;company=" rel="nofollow">acsearchinfo</a>, <a href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1672" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1672" rel="nofollow">OCRE</a>, or at <a href="http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/faustina_II/i.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/faustina_II/i.html" rel="nofollow">Wildwinds</a>. This indicates that no copies have been sold at major auctions in the past few decades and none of the major university and museum collections of Europe and North America have an example. In the <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/aurelius-family-genuine-or-fakes.356594/#post-4259455" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/aurelius-family-genuine-or-fakes.356594/#post-4259455">aforementioned discussion</a>, Curtis Clay noted no further specimens in Lanz Graz IV, 1974, Roman Middle Bronzes; nor in the Berk photofile based on catalogues and lists of c. 1970-1990. There are thus three known specimens:</p><p><br /></p><p>The one in the Staatliches Münzkabinett in Vienna cited by Cohen.</p><p>The one in the British Museum found in Cambridgeshire in 1984.</p><p>This coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin can be dated to AD 161-164 on the basis of Faustina&#039;s hairstyle, but its date can be further narrowed to AD 162-164, because it was almost certainly issued in conjunction with the SALVTI AVGVSTOR issues of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus minted during those years, such as <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-14393" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-14393" rel="nofollow">this sestertius</a> of Marcus in the British Museum Collection (RIC 843; BMCRE 1038).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1190040[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Post your coins of Salus or of Faustina, or coins in your collection known from only a handful of examples, or anything you feel is relevant! </i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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