Lucius Verus Concord Sestertius

I've been looking for an example of the Concord Augustor type of either Lucius Verus or Marcus Aurelius with a good balance between affordability and condition since I started collecting at the end of last year, and spotted this sestertius on ebay a month or two ago. I've been quietly saving up in the hope that it would still be available, and thankfully it arrived today.

In hand, the difference in tone between the dark and light brown is a lit more subtle, and as a result the coin looks even better than I expected. It is also the slightly less common variant with TR P II instead of simply TR P, indicating that it is slightly later.



RIC 1309(?) 33mm, 22.6g
161-162 AD
IMP CAES L AVREL VERVS AVG
CONCORD AVGVSTOR TR P II S C

Share your coins of Lucius Verus, concordia types, or anything stressing dynastic themes.

 

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That coin reminds me of old leather-- what an appealing look! Dynastic issues are always desirable-- wish I had more of them.

Here's a favorite Lucius Verus:


EGYPT, Alexandria. Lucius Verus
year 4, CE 163/4
tetradrachm, 24 mm, 13.51 gm
Obv: ΛAVPHΛI OVHPOCCEB; bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust left
Rev: Radiate and draped bust of Serapis-Pantheos right, wearing calathus and horn of Ammon; trident behind shoulder; ∆/L in right field
Ref: Emmett 2360 (4), R1; Köln 2148; Dattari (Savio) 9420; K&G 39.77

 

One of the first coin I ever bought. Condition VVC ( very very circulated ) but I wanted it because sesterstii of this type are common, asses are rare.
AE As 26 mm 11.11 g
CONCORD AUGVSTOR COS II S-C
IMP CAES L AUREL VERVS AVG
RIC 1291

 

This coin comes in many different bust varieties. Yours is laureate and cuirassed, right, seen from behind.

The RIC listing for this coin is:



Yours is therefore RIC 1311.

The British Museum does not have a copy of this coin in their collection. The closest they have is a laureate head version, BMCRE4 1026:



Here's the one from the BMC:

 

Great coin thejewk , congrats. I have a CONCORD AVGVSTOR but Issued under his co emperor Marcus Aurelius:

 

@Roman Collector Thanks so much for the information, the reason I placed the ? after the classification was that I wasn't exactly sure if my coin was cuirassed or if it was just an unusually wide 'neck'. I had spent some time yesterday trying to decide the issue but I only have Sear at present, and the online resources seemed rather confused about the issue. You've saved me future headaches.

 

That's a great-looking one, @thejewk. I had to get a LV sestertius just because of that story of he and his drinking buddies making a nuisance of themselves by throwing heavy coins into the windows of wine shops to see if they could break the cups inside. I regret that mine isn't a CONCORD AVGVSTOR as I imagine that would be his first choice of coin to use as a missile.


LUCIUS VERUS
AE Sestertius. 24.31g, 31mm. Rome mint, AD 164. RIC 1379. O: L AVREL VERVS AVG ARMENIACVS, laureate bust right. R: TR P IIII IMP II COS II, Mars advancing right, holding trophy and transverse spear; S C across fields.

 

@zumbly Yours might not be a Concord type, but it is another of my favourite types that I don't yet have; a rather camp and jaunty looking Mars strutting right. I love them.

 

Nice coin @thejewk

 

here' my only Verus coin. I might look for a denarius soon.

 

That's a wonderful portrait Octavius, and a beautiful patina too.

 

thank you

 

A handsome coin, indeed.

 

Lucius Verus. 161-169 AD. Æ Sestertius Struck 162 AD. Obv: IMP CAES L AVREL VERVS AVG, bare-headed and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind. Rev: CONCORD AVGVSTOR TR P, COS II in exergue, S-C across fields, Marcus Aurelius standing right, clasping hands with Lucius Verus standing left. RIC III, 1311 (Marcus Aurelius).

 

The coins of this series are usually struck at Antioch. Here's one of Lucius.

 

Here is my example, one of my favorite coins. I need to get the same type issued by Marcus:

 

Happy new year, everybody. I am bringing up this old post because I recently obtained one of the type and I found myself getting confused.

I have to agree with @Roman Collector - there are a lot of these, especially if you add Marcus Aurelius with Lucius Verus. If you search CONCORD AVGVSTOR in OCRE, and limit that to the sestertius denomination, there are 24 hits!

http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=fulltext:CONCORD+AVGVSTOR+AND+denomination_facet:"Sestertius"

Whenever I try to attribute a coin like this - many varieties of the same basic design - I find that a lot of online sources (acsearch, etc.) tend to not be very accurate. My hunch is auction houses don't really get more money on a minor variety, so it does not pay to spend a lot of time nailing things down.

And now to my coin. First off, mine has Marcus Aurelius on the obverse. And XVI is the TRP year; this narrows it down to five (!) on OCRE:

http://numismatics.org/ocre/results...rait_facet:"Marcus+Aurelius"+AND+fulltext:XVI

I think mine is bare-headed, which narrows it down further:

RIC 823: head only
RIC 824: cuirassed only
RIC 825: aegis only

The problem is, mine seems to be draped as well as cuirassed; this is not listed on OCRE. The other problem is that I think I found a die match to a Wildwinds example, described as RIC 826 var. which is described as laureate...but I don't see the laurels! The "var." part of the description comes from the bust being draped as well as cuirassed; OCRE has this as just a laureate head; RIC 827 is a laureate head with drapery on the shoulder (so the Wildwinds example could be RIC 827 var. too, I guess, if you want to keep the laurels).

Compounding my confusion, I believe the Wildwinds example is an obverse die match to mine.

Now on to the coins:

Here is Wildwinds RIC 826 var. described as laureate (I believe in error):


https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/marcus_aurelius/RIC_0826var_Cohen_57.txt

Here is mine, with my effort at an attribution:


Marcus Aurelius Æ Sestertius
(163-164 A.D.) Rome Mint
IMP CAES M AVREL ANTONINVS AVG P M, bare-headed, draped and cuirassed bust right / CONCORD AVGVSTOR TR P XVI COS III S C, M. Aurelius and L. Verus, facing, clasping hands, Aurelius holds scroll.
RIC III Marcus Aurelius 824 var. (draped as well as cuirassed)
(22.18 grams / 29 mm)
eBay Dec. 2021
Attribution Notes: There are many variations of type, this seems to be a variety, since none are described as draped:
Obv.: Bare-headed bust, cuirassed and also draped
Rev: TR P XVI
Wildwinds RIC 826var. is wrong (?not laureate?), but seems to be obv. die match for this one, with same drapery.

Here is the Wildwinds obverse (left) paired with my obverse (right), which I think is a die match (note the off-kilter EL ending the left side legend, etc.):



Sorry to be so tedious about this, but I was hoping somebody out there could set me straight on this, or confirm my hunches and I wanted to show my homework.

Also, I was also curious about the reason for this large CONCORD AVGVSTOR issue - I understand the basic propaganda about MA and LV getting along as co-emperors, but I wondered if LV's off to fight the Persian wars or some other military-political matter was behind this issue.

And for sure, if there are any more of the type out there, please share them.

 

Absolutely a die match and it's bare-headed, not laureate. It was part of the third emission of AD 162 (MIR, p. 98).


The attribution comes down to which bust type it is. Szaivert and BMCRE note four types of bare-headed bust for this one:

Bare r., draped far shoulder
Bare r., aegis on left shoulder
Bare r., draped
Bare r., cuirassed

Yours is clearly not the type with drapery only on the far left shoulder.
The aegis type is represented by BMCRE 1007, and that's not your coin.
The cuirassed type is represented by BMCRE 1008, and it doesn't match yours well, either.
There's a footnote to BMCRE 1007 that mentions these different bust types, too, and I think yours is the draped type. I'd call it: RIC —; BMCRE 1007n; Cohen —; MIR 30-6/[13].

 

You are awesome, @Roman Collector - thank you for clarifying this for me. And happy new year!

 

Here are some draped types:

Auktionshaus H. D. Rauch GmbH (Auction 86), 12.5.2010, lot 861
Roma Numismatics Limited (E-Sale 52), 10.1.2019, lot 836
I don't have a photo, but BMCRE cites Michele Baranowsky, Milan (Auction 9, Traverso, Martini), 25.2.1931, lot 2040, as an example of the bare-headed and draped bust.