excited to have won this. i have my own theory on who's depicted on the reverse and was looking for someone more knowledgeable to crush my dreams. the RIC description(pius399a) :Antoninus Pius, seated left on platform on right with a woman standing besid him; both lean forward to receive a little girl, carried by man standing right below; in front of the platform, another man is running up, pushing a second little girl before him and here is a CNG description : official seated left on a platform, leaning forward to hand rolled document to young girl being held aloft towards him by man standing right before the platform; second official standing left behind the first, pointing towards the document; directly below the officials, second citizen bending to lift up second girl in order to present her to the officials my theory : pius and faustina on the platform and marcus aurelius and lucius verus below with the girls evidence: in better condition 2 things stand out 1 - that one of the males on bottom is clearly much younger which would seem odd if it was just an official. marcus would have been 19-20 and lucius 10-11 in 41 which is the date usually attached to this coin. this seems to fit 2 - effort was given in showing both with curly hair (more noticeable on other examples) which both were of course well known for on their own coins besides this just the fact the marcus would have been a common presence in the "throne room" as seen in other coins, i think it might have been obvious/expected to people of the time but alas i don't want to live in delusion if this is obviously false, would love to hear from someone more in the know!
I came across this description online of your coin: https://www.judaism-and-rome.org/de...rding-charity-funds-orphaned-girls-141-146-ce Here's an extract from the site: "This denarius, minted between the years 141 and 146 CE, depicts on the obverse the head of the empress Faustina the Elder, and on the reverse the ceremony for the awarding of charity funds to orphaned girls, the puellae faustinae. The inscription on the reverse refers to the empress as Faustina, diva – “deified”, and Augusta, indicating that it was minted following her death and deification in 140 CE. Annia Galeria Faustina was born in 100 CE to a Senatorial family; her father, Marcus Annius Verus, had been prefect of Rome, and consul in 121 and 126 CE and her mother, Rupilia Faustina, was closely related to the family of the emperor Trajan, who was her mother maternal uncle. She was also the half-sister of Vibia Sabina, Hadrian’s wife. Faustina married Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus, the future Antoninus Pius, between the years 110 and 115, the exact date is unknown; they had four children, two sons and two daughters, of which only the younger daughter?, Annia Galeria Faustina Minor survived, going on to marry the same Marcus Aurelius that her father would later name as his heir in 145 CE. The inscription on the reverse of this coin, puellae faustinianae (“the girls of Faustina”), refers to a charity foundation initiated by Antoninus Pius in 141 CE, to honour his wife. According to the Historia Augusta, Antoninus Pius “founded an order of destitute girls, called faustinianae in honour of Faustina” (SHA, Life of Antoninus Pius 8). The puellae faustinianae was an extension of the alimenta, which had already received significant development under the reign of Trajan; although private sponsorship of poor children was already established by the 2nd century CE, it was not until Trajan’s reign that it became a programme of the state, offering loans to farmers across Italy, the interest from which was available to support girls and boys in each local area (Rawson, “Iconography of Roman childhood,” p. 224; see also “Trajan and the alimenta system”). A diverse range of coins celebrated the growth of the alimenta, through which the scheme evolved from that of a simple imperial handout, which emphasised the liberality and generosity of the emperor, to one that celebrated the “connection between children and the good of the country, especially fecunditas, agricultural prosperity, and pietas” (Rawson, “Iconography of childhood,” p. 224). The institution of the puellae Faustinianae was a further step in this development, assisting daughters of the poor with grain allowance as well as with a dowry. This charitable program was continued by Marcus Aurelius, some years afterwards, and also named in honour of his wife, Faustina the Younger, as the novae puellae Faustinianae, the “new girls of Faustina” (SHA, Life of Marcus Aurelius 26). Indeed, two reliefs, today standing in the Villa Albani Museum, depict a procession of the puellae faustinianae instituted by Marcus Aurelius. The girls form a procession, which includes in both reliefs thirteen girls, and parade in front of two women of the imperial family, possibly Faustina the Younger and her daughter Lucilla, who supervise the distribution of the fund (Rawson, “Iconography of childhood,” p. 225). Once again, this coin celebrates the primacy of Italy, as the center of the oikoumenè, but above all it celebrates imperial benevolence and providential care; the role of the emperor as civic benefactor was by now a traditional feature of the values promoted by the imperial house, but the evolution of the programme to include reference to the empress was a new development, and one that highlighted parental aspect of the entire imperial household. By inaugurating a charitable programme in his wife’s name, Antoninus Pius ensured that the memory of her maternal interest in Rome’s subjects endured, which by extension served to emphasise his continuing role as the father of the empire."
That's a scarce and much desired denarius of Faustina I. We know with near certainty from Beckmann's die study of the aurei of Faustina I that it was issued in AD 145 as part of a commemoration of Faustina II's marriage to Marcus Aurelius.* ALL interpretations of the coin's iconography need to be taken in that light. The children depicted on the coin are, of course, anonymous orphan girls, the beneficiaries of the congiarium that was part of the wedding ceremony. The other coin of this series, the corresponding aureus (BMCRE 324), depicts numerous such children. There is no reason to believe that the adult figures holding up the children on the reverse of the denarius represent members of the imperial family. Beckmann suggests they may be merely anonymous attendants who aided in performing the ceremony. *Beckmann, Martin. Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces. American Numismatic Society, 2012, pp. 53-55.
@beluga, I buy your hypothesis. Why go to all the effort depicting clearly curly haired men, when they could have gone a more generic hairstyle?
so you're saying there's a chance? lol thanks for the info, i was hoping to hear from you i enjoy your faustina threads
I don't think the person sitting on a stool on top of platform can be Antoninus Pius. The stool has straight legs, which means the person sitting on it is a junior magistrate: quaestor, aedile or tribune. A senior magistrate, praetor or consul, or an imperator would sit on a curule seat, a stool with crossed legs. An emperor being a senior magistrate, he will always be depicted sitting on a curule seat. I don't think there are any exceptions.
..RC's the go to guy on Faustinas.....oh, and welcome to CT Ancients..(your 1st name isn't Bob is it?!?..)
seems pretty definite, checked all examples i could find and they all had straight legs. dreams officially crushed!
since i saw this i had been keeping an eye on other seats on imperial coins, have come across two examples of an emperor sitting on seat with straight legs: RIC II Hadrian 312-315 and RIC II Domitian 608 the hadrian scene also looks very similar to the puellae faustinae one, i would think that should leave the door open for it being pius
I see no comments on the billowing cape (or whatever) over the seated figure on the OP coin. Would that be present on a male figure?
Pete, I think that's not a billowing cape, but a second figure standing behind the seated figure and leaning forward, as clearly seen on the second denarius posted by Beluga and on the BM aureus posted by RomanCollector.
Interesting question : is it the emperor who is seated on the stool? On this sestertius of Nero, one can see that the emperor is just overseeing the distribution of money, while money is being given to citizens by a junior magistrate sitting on the straight legged stool. (coin not mine, of course!)
Must say I'm thoroughly enjoying this thread!... We can see just how much information can be derived from scenes on ancient coins! I guess that's why we all love it so much..
