Featured Peacocks and the deification of Roman empresses

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That has got to be the coolest eagle ever... it's snowboarding.

Totally trounces this eagle, for example:

(C'mon, skiing is for boomers. )

 

Indeed she does, and I just missed one by one advance over my bid. I couldn't get home in time to cover, and it makes me sick. I'm trying to complete a grouping of these and their subvarieties, and will show it when I get the last ones I still need.

Similarly missed out on CONSECRATIO eagles for Marciana and Matidia. Sunday is not a good day for auctions for me of late.

If anybody spots a denarius for Faustina II with tail-in-spendor let me know, will ya?

 

I just bought this beauty in auction and found a pedigree back to the Montagu collection 1896. For the record, the auction house had the pedigree back to 1909 so it didn't do so bad. Love that it is a gold quinarius too which is rare.

Pedigree:
Ex Stack's (1/2010) Lot # 391. Ex: Numismatica Ars Classica 51 (3/2009) Lot # 299. Ex: Lanz 135 (5/2007) Lot # 135. Ex: Ars Classica 13 (6/1928) Lot # 1307. Ex: Hamburger (10/1925) Lot # 1014. Ex: J. Hirsch 24 (5/1909). Ex Sotheby's March/April 1896, De Feu M.H. Montagu collection, lot 368

 

Oh, wow!!! That makes a Faustina collector like me drool!

 

RIC 268 (Commodus)
DIVVS M ANTONINVS PIVS
CONSECRATIO
180 AD, 18mm, 2.6g

Not a peacock, but also not quite an eagle in some ways, the reverse on this coin strikes me as something of a hybrid between the two animals. This was my first ancient coin, and I am very pleased with it still.

 

Some really lovely coins in this post. And so, at the risk of junking it up, I just got a Faustina II sestertius with her being lofted heavenward on the back of the peacock. No extra charge for luggage, please fasten your seatbelts.

I got this in a batch of sestertii from Serbia - I had a Christmas eBay gift card that was burning a hole in my pocket. Serbia is the source of a lot of fakes, from what I've seen on eBay. My hope is these are too cruddy to be fake. This one is a bit light, but otherwise it looks ancient to me. I love to be disabused of my notions, however.



Faustina II Æ Sestertius
(176-180 A.D.)
Rome Mint (sold from Serbia)
DIVA FAVSTINA [PIA], draped bust right / [CONSECRATI]O S-C, Faustina, holding
sceptre, veil around head, seated left on peacock flying right.
RIC 1702; MIR 18, 56-6/10;Banti 38; Cohen 69, BMC 1570.
(16.40 grams / 29 mm)

 

Some tremendous examples
...and welcome @DonnaML


Paulina, Denarius



Mariniana, Antoninianus

Q

 

Cool!! I'd call that the Diva Faustina of the moldy bread patina!

 

Eye candy, Q!

 

The same thought occurred to me, RC. It might actually be mold. The seller did a nice job packaging it for the long trip from Serbia, but somehow, the entire thing got soaked! It had somewhat dried out, but everything was still damp all the way through. Bits of paper packaging was stuck to the coins!

Getting ancient bronze damp is not an especially good idea, so I've heard. I've been keeping an eye on 'em. Definitely not edible.

 

Thank you!

 

More information about peacocks and a few recent additions to my collection.

Ovid (Metamorphoses 1) relates the story of Io who, after being caught with her lover, Jupiter, was transformed by Juno into a white heifer. She was later freed when Mercury distracted her guard, the giant Argus, by Mercury playing the pan-pipes and telling stories, and then killed him.

To remember him, Juno transferred Argus’s eyes to the tail feathers of the peacock. For this reason, the peacock became the animal familiar of Juno. On coins, the peacock reverse type is specific to the coinage of empresses from Domitia onwards. Juno was one of the Capitoline Triad, with Jupiter and Minerva, and – as goddess of marriage and childbirth – she was believed to protect the state and the women of Rome. The myth related by Ovid also renders the bird a symbol of immortality.

As a symbol of immortality, the peacock typically appears on consecration issues for Roman empresses. These were issued for the deified Faustina II.

Diva Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman AR denarius, 2.73 g, 17.1 mm, 12 h.
Rome, AD 176-180.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA PIA, bust of Faustina II, draped, right.
Rev: CONSECRATIO, peacock standing facing with tail spread, head right.
Refs: RIC 743; BMCRE 712-13; Cohen/RSC 70; RCV --; CRE 200.


Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 19.27 g, 28.7 mm, 6 h.
Rome, AD 176-180.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA PIA, bust of Faustina II, draped, right.
Rev: CONSECRATIO, peacock walking left with tail spread.
Refs: RIC 1703; BMCRE 1573-76; Cohen 72; RCV 5228; MIR 60.

 

Faustina II, AE As, IVNONI REGINAE