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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 7963794, member: 110350&quot;]As I&#039;ve mentioned, I&#039;ve been looking for a couple of years for a nice example of one of the denarius types with portraits of Antoninus Pius as Augustus on one side and the young Marcus Aurelius as Caesar on the other. Although they&#039;re certainly not uncommon, I&#039;ve had trouble finding one that has two nice portraits but isn&#039;t exorbitantly expensive. I finally saw one recently that met those requirements perfectly, on the Akropolis Ancient Coins website of our own [USER=99412]@PeteB[/USER]. I thought that both portraits were beautiful, especially the one of Marcus Aurelius, and knew I had to have it. It arrived today.</p><p><br /></p><p>I didn&#039;t realize until I looked up the coin in various catalogs that RSC II lists no less than 34(!) different varieties of the type at p. 190. Perhaps the number isn&#039;t so surprising when one considers that there are two different portraits, that they can vary in terms of whether they face left or right, whether Antoninus Pius is laureate or bareheaded, whether the portraits are heads or busts, whether&nbsp; they&#039;re draped or draped and cuirassed, etc., as well as in terms of slight differences in the legends, and in how the different types are combined on any given variety. As it happens, though, mine is one of the more common types.</p><p><br /></p><p>In looking at my coin (dating to the 140-144 AD period of Marcus Aurelius&#039;s first consulship) or any other coin of Marcus as Caesar, keep in mind how young Marcus was when he was named Caesar, and how long he held that position: he was born in 121 AD, was adopted by Antoninus Pius in 138, named Caesar (and COS DES[IG]) in 139, named Consul for the first time in 140, married Faustina II and was named Consul for the second time in 145, and succeeded Antoninus Pius as Augustus in March 161.&nbsp; Thus, he was Caesar for 22 years, along with Lucius Verus. Was anyone ever Caesar for longer?</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s my coin, for which I am very grateful to [USER=99412]@PeteB[/USER]:</p><p><br /></p><p>Antoninus Pius with Marcus Aurelius as Caesar, AR Denarius 140-144 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Laureate head of Antoninus Pius right, ANTONINVS AVG PIVS - P P TR P COS III / Rev. Bare head of young Marcus Aurelius right, beardless, AVRELIVS CAESAR - AVG PII F COS. RIC III Antoninus Pius 417a (p. 78) (1930 ed.); RSC II Antoninus Pius &amp; Marcus Aurelius 15 (p. 190); Sear RCV II 4524 (ill. p. 261) [dated to 141 AD]; BMCRE IV Antoninus Pius 155 (p. 26; ill. Pl 4 No. 11); A. Pangerl, &quot;Vier Jahrzente Portraits des Marcus Aurelius auf römischen Reichsmünzen,&quot; <i>500 Years of Roman Coin Portraits</i> (2d ed. 2017), pp. 318-333 at p. 324 Tabelle 1 (No. 3.04) &amp; p. 326 (No. 4) [dated to 140 AD and classified at p. 439 as “Type 1: round head of a child, no beard, curly hair”]. 19mm, 3.43 gm, 12h. <i>Purchased from Akropolis Ancient Coins, 17 October 2021.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1380708[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here is my only other coin of Marcus Aurelius as Caesar, dating to his second consulship (ca. 145-146 AD), and discussed more fully in a thread at <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/bearded-and-beardless-marcus-aurelius-portraits-under-single-catalog-number.354332/#post-4049208" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/bearded-and-beardless-marcus-aurelius-portraits-under-single-catalog-number.354332/#post-4049208">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/bearded-and-beardless-marcus-aurelius-portraits-under-single-catalog-number.354332/#post-4049208</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>Marcus Aurelius Caesar (under Antoninus Pius) AR Denarius, 145-146 AD, Rome Mint. Obv: Bare head right, clean-shaven, AVRELIVS CAE-SVG PII F / Rev: Honos standing left, holding branch and cornucopiae, COS II. RIC III Antoninus Pius 429a, RSC II Marcus Aurelius 110 (p. 202), BMCRE IV Antoninus Pius 594 (p. 85), ERIC II 301, Sear RCV (1981 ed.) 1279; A. Pangerl, &quot;Vier Jahrzente Portraits des Marcus Aurelius auf römischen Reichsmünzen,&quot; <i>500 Years of Roman Coin Portraits</i> (2d ed. 2017), pp. 318-333 at p. 324 Tabelle 1 (No. 3.10) &amp; p. 326 No. 10) [dated to 145-146 AD and classified at p. 439 as “Type 3: long head shape of adolescent boy; beginning moustache, increasing but discrete side burns”] (noting at p. 324 that &quot;RIC gibt keinen Barttyp an&quot;).&nbsp; 18.2 mm, 3.3 g.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/marcus-aurelius-caesar-ric-429-a-rsc-110-dml-coin-beardless-jpg.1061370/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1380719[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is Table I from the Pangerl article, at p. 324 of the book, listing both of my types, dating the first to 140 AD (the first year of Marcus&#039;s first consulship), when he was 19, and the second to 145-146 AD (his second consulship), when he was 24-25. (My first coin is listed on the second line, right side, as Type 0b, No. 3.04 (RIC 417(a)), and my second coin is listed on the fifth line, right side, as Type 0e, No. 3.10 (RIC 429)).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1380720[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And here are Pangerl&#039;s photos of both of my types, at p. 326 of the book. My first coin is Type 4, and my second coin is Type 10. Note that Pangerl&#039;s example of Type 10 is beardless like mine, but has longer sideburns and at least the beginnings of a mustache. In the other thread I cited, I posted a number of examples of the type (RIC 429), varying widely in terms of the amount of facial hair Marcus displays.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1380721[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Please post your own examples of coins of Marcus Aurelius Caesar, with or without Antoninus Pius on the other side. Obviously, even if you don&#039;t have the book <i>500 Years of Roman Coin Portraits</i>, you can use Pangerl&#039;s Table 1 as a resource for trying to date any such coins, in addition to whatever other sources you may have.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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