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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;thejewk, post: 3878885, member: 100136&quot;][ATTACH=full]1024665[/ATTACH] </p><p>RIC 1408; Cohen 251</p><p>FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL / VENVS SC</p><p>12.38g, 27.5mm, 154-6 AD</p><p>Ex. Bertolami E-Sale Auction 50 2017</p><p><br /></p><p>This was a slightly confusing coin to attribute, and [USER=75937]@Roman Collector[/USER]&nbsp; was a great help in nailing down the reference.&nbsp; The seller had attributed the coin as RIC 1409, which was clearly incorrect because on my coin Venus is clearly facing left holding an apple and sceptre, and not a rudder with a dolphin wrapped around.&nbsp; Sear 4735, my first point of reference, lists this type with the obverse legend FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL as RIC 1408, with no mention of a different obverse legend variety.&nbsp; RIC 1408, however, does list two possible obverse legends, but it mentions the one listed in Sear (group 3) and FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII F (group 6), which misses the last two letters of the legend on my coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Although the legend on my coin beyond ANTONINI is almost nonexistent in the image, under magnification the final two letters IL are faintly present, and the space between the final I of ANTONINI and the IL of the FIL make it clear that the full legend provided above is indeed present on my coin.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Cohen does, however, list an example of my coin with the full obverse legend as both a sestertius (250) and a middle bronze (251), providing the second part of my reference above.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have now spent a considerable amount of time on the usual sites studying the type and have found that my obverse legend seems to be around a half as common as the alternative legend, and appears far more consistently on the sestertius of this type rather than the middle bronze denominations.&nbsp; I think that the reason for this is made quite clear on my coin where the lettering is rather tiny compared to the average As of this time.&nbsp; This is also, I conjecture, the source of RIC giving the legend as F rather than FIL.&nbsp; I have discovered images of two examples online which terminate with an F, and it is most likely in my opinion that the engraver simply ran out of room.&nbsp; The legend of this type commonly begins well under the bust of Faustina, or has no interruption at all over the head.&nbsp; I can only conjecture that mine was an early die on which they hadn&#039;t quite figured out how they were going to fit everything in, and the one terminating with an F were likewise failed early attempts.</p><p><br /></p><p>This much digging may seem superfluous for such a humble coin, but I&#039;ve greatly enjoyed my time researching this one.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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