I always wanted to have an imperial coin with a left-facing portrait of Trajan, Hadrian or Antoninus Pius , unfortunately I still have to wait for a decent one that will fit in my budget. In recent years I have only seen a few on the market , all above 400$. Some weeks ago I found this provincial coin of Antoninus Pius and I didn't hesitate to buy it , even if some legends and details are not very visible , I liked the nice style of the two portraits. Antoninus Pius AE 25mm of Laodicea ad Mare , Syria. BMC 72 AVTO KAI TI AIΛI AΔΡI ANTΩNEINOC CEB, laureate head left , countermark of a bearded male head right / IOVΛIEΩN TΩN KAI ΛAOΔIKEΩN, draped and turreted bust of Tyche(as the city goddess) left wearing bunch of grapes ; MO/ΥΚ to left, ΓP (date) to right. Please post any imperial or provincial left-facing portraits coins of these three emperors. Have you ever seen one of Nerva ?
I tried to find on internet some nice left-facing portrait examples for each of the three emperors , I hope you will like my selection :
the coins are from : Trajan acsearch https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=673266 acsearch https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=918875 numisbids https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=3761&lot=829 Hadrian Medallion , Münzkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin https://ikmk.smb.museum/object?id=18201058&lang=en Medallion , British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1868-0512-1 acsearch https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6505317 acsearch Antoninus Pius Medallion , Museum of Fine Arts, Boston https://collections.mfa.org/objects...s;jsessionid=90EA23276439B76C4105F078202F77D6 acsearch https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2261306 acsearch https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2664040
I remember reading way back when I started collecting ancients, that there was a reason that a portrait was either left or right facing. I can't for the life of me remember the reason or find where I read it... Can anyone help either confirm that I am crazy or that I did remember correctly... Was there a legitimate reason besides the fact that the die engraver was only good at engraving left/right facing busts?
How about one of Antoninus Pius' daughter? Faustina II, AD 147-175/6. Roman Æ as, 9.85 g, 26.0 mm, 6 h. Rome, AD 147-150. Obv: FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, Bust of Faustina II, draped, with band of pearls, left. Rev: VENVS S C, Venus standing right, drawing veil from shoulder with right hand and holding up apple in left hand. Refs: RIC 1410b (l.); BMCRE 2165; Cohen --; Sear --.
I wish I knew that one. Of course there will be different answers for different reigns whith some being more common left amd some very rare. Of those mentioned here, I believe Hadrian is the easiest to find. PIATATI AVG PP ROMVLO CONDITORI I have none of the others but this Septimius Severus from 'Emesa' is extremely rare.
very nice portraits @Roman Collector @dougsmit , thanks for showing them I really had hard time to find some nice examples for Antoninus Pius , he has many on gold , but very few on copper.
Hadrian Ar Denarius RIC 299 (1497) Obv. Head left bare Rv. Africa reclining left 136 A.D. 3.40 grms 18mm Photo by W. Hansen
The only left-facing portrait I have of one of those three emperors is this provincial: a Hadrian Year 19 tetradrachm from Alexandria with a bust of Nilus (facing right) on the reverse. RPC III 5941, Milne 1449, Emmett 875.19. Left-facing portraits seem much more common in the later Empire; I have a couple from Probus, as well as examples from Constantine II, Constantius II, Constans, and Julian II.
I looked at coinage of Alexandria from this period , the large majority types are right-facing portrait, hard to find coins like yours. https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/egypt/alexandria/t.html
Left facing portraits were struck on bronze Medallions for all ruling Emperors and Empresses from Trajan to Severus Alexander (with the exception of Annia Faustina).
This is my favorite and only left facing Trajan : Trajan (98-117), AR Denarius, 3.37g, Rome, c. AD 110, 3.37g, laureate 'heroic' bust left, with slight drapery, rev. Arabia standing left, holding branch and bundle of cinnamon sticks; camel at feet (RSC 89c; RIC 142 var.), very rare bust type and one Hadrian Hadrian (117-138 AD), AR Denarius, 134-138, 3.02g, hadrianvs avg cos iii pp, bare head left, rev. africa, Africa wearing elephant skin head dress, reclining left, holding scorpion and cornucopiae, a basket of corn ears in front of her RIC 1497 (RSC 137)
Another Hadrian Travel series leftie... HADRIAN AR Denarius. 3.33g, 18.3mm. Rome mint, AD 130-133. RIC II.3 1546; BMCRE 864; RSC 991b. O: HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P, bare head left. R: NILVS, Nilus reclining right, holding reeds in crook of right arm, cornucopia in left hand; before, hippopotamus left, below, crocodile left. My A-Pi leftie is a provincial as well. ANTONINUS PIUS Billon Tetradrachm. 12.71g, 22.5mm. EGYPT, Alexandria, RY 5 = AD 141/142. Dattari-Savio pl. 108, 8094 (this coin); Emmett 1362.5; RPC Online 14246 (2 spec., this coin cited). O: Laureate head left. R: L-E, Artemis advancing right, drawing arrow from quiver at shoulder, holding bow. Ex Robert L. Grover Collection of Roman-Egyptian Coinage, previously held by the Art Institute of Chicago (1981.513); ex Giovanni Dattari Collection
finally a Trajan , ..and there is an obverse die match between the two Africa denarii @Terence Cheesman and @eparch
SINISTER - EARLY EMPIRE Augustus Octavian as Augustus LEFT-Sinister 27 BC–14 AD Quinarius Emerita 25-23 AR 13.5mm 1.79g - P CARISI LEG Victory trophy C 387. RIC 1b SCARCE Agrippa RI Agrippa AE As 28mm 11g Neptune-S-C Left Germanicus RI Germanicus Caesar died 10 October 19 CE Copper As 27mm struck under Caligula- S-C RIC I 35 BMCRE I 49 Left Tiberius RI Tiberius AE As 14-37 CE Laureate-Pont Max Globe Rudder sinister left RIC I 58 Gaius Caligula RI Gaius Caligula AE As 37-41 CE Vesta seated S-C Sinister Left Vespasianus RI Vespasian 69-79 CE AE Dupondius Felicitas stdg caduceus cornucopia sinister left
I found this sestertius a few years ago at some flea market. It's true that left facing portraits of Antonine and Severian emperors are quite scarce. There is also this medallic sestertius of Commodus : Commodus, sestertius, Rome 192. AE 32-35 mm, 21.51 g, 6 h Very rare, only one other specimen known (Gorny & Mosch sale 169, lot 314). It's a double die match, but the Gorny & Mosch specimen has S C on reverse. On my specimen the S C is missing. I suspect a previous owner carefully erased it to pretend this sestertius was a medallion.
