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<p>[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 7400515, member: 75937"]Congratulations on your new acquisition! I am happy to help and I understand your confusion because this was a very large issue and depending on the die-engraver, the details are often difficult to discern. Your coin bears Faustina's first hairstyle and first obverse inscription under Antoninus Pius and dates to AD 147-149.</p><p><br /></p><p>The type with a dove probably doesn't actually exist. <a href="http://romanpaulus.x10host.com/Antoninus/11%20-%20Faustina%20II%20-%20Undated%20147-161%20and%20later%20%28med_res%29.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://romanpaulus.x10host.com/Antoninus/11%20-%20Faustina%20II%20-%20Undated%20147-161%20and%20later%20%28med_res%29.pdf" rel="nofollow">Paul Dinsdale</a> explains:</p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>RIC 517a-c (plus variants) describes 'Venus standing l., holding apple and rudder set on dolphin which coils round it.' Examples of this type show an extraordinary variety of execution in details (see illustrated examples above). On the best dies the dolphin is clearly depicted with its head facing down and to the right and its tail coiling upwards to the left around the shaft of the rudder. On inferior dies the head of the dolphin is little more than a blob, and the tail is reduced to one or more coils around the shaft. On the worst examples, only a couple of marks across the shaft remain of the dolphin, but these can clearly be seen as one end of a continuum, and that the clear intention of the die-cutter was to indicate the presence of the dolphin. However, it is these poorer defined specimens that have been erroneously described as 'Venus standing l., holding apple and rudder set on dove' (RIC 515a-b plus variants). Virtually every specimen seen, where details can be determined, show some form of diagonal markings, as in the final example above, and thus indicate the dolphin, as discussed; I have seen no specimen with a recognizable dove. Where sources are listed as corrected, unless otherwise indicated, it is because they describe a dove on the rev.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1287242[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Your coin indeed has a strand of pearls around Faustina's head and its reverse shows a rudder set on a dolphin. It is RIC 517c; BMCRE 1067; Cohen —; Strack 495.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is no. <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1912-0710-280" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1912-0710-280" rel="nofollow">1067</a> in the British Museum:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1287241[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p> Here is the example in my collection:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/faustina-jr-venus-and-rudder-denarius-jpg.1069630/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Faustina II, AD 147-175/6.</p><p>Roman AR denarius, 2.64 g, 17.4 mm, 7 h.</p><p>Rome, AD 147-150.</p><p>Obv: FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, bust of Faustina II, draped, right, with band of pearls round head.</p><p>Rev: VENVS, Venus, standing left, holding apple or globe in right hand and rudder around which is twined a dolphin in left hand.</p><p>Refs: RIC 517c; BMCRE 1067-73; RSC 266a; Strack 495; RCV 4708; CRE 233.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 7400515, member: 75937"]Congratulations on your new acquisition! I am happy to help and I understand your confusion because this was a very large issue and depending on the die-engraver, the details are often difficult to discern. Your coin bears Faustina's first hairstyle and first obverse inscription under Antoninus Pius and dates to AD 147-149. The type with a dove probably doesn't actually exist. [URL='http://romanpaulus.x10host.com/Antoninus/11%20-%20Faustina%20II%20-%20Undated%20147-161%20and%20later%20%28med_res%29.pdf']Paul Dinsdale[/URL] explains: [INDENT]RIC 517a-c (plus variants) describes 'Venus standing l., holding apple and rudder set on dolphin which coils round it.' Examples of this type show an extraordinary variety of execution in details (see illustrated examples above). On the best dies the dolphin is clearly depicted with its head facing down and to the right and its tail coiling upwards to the left around the shaft of the rudder. On inferior dies the head of the dolphin is little more than a blob, and the tail is reduced to one or more coils around the shaft. On the worst examples, only a couple of marks across the shaft remain of the dolphin, but these can clearly be seen as one end of a continuum, and that the clear intention of the die-cutter was to indicate the presence of the dolphin. However, it is these poorer defined specimens that have been erroneously described as 'Venus standing l., holding apple and rudder set on dove' (RIC 515a-b plus variants). Virtually every specimen seen, where details can be determined, show some form of diagonal markings, as in the final example above, and thus indicate the dolphin, as discussed; I have seen no specimen with a recognizable dove. Where sources are listed as corrected, unless otherwise indicated, it is because they describe a dove on the rev.[/INDENT] [ATTACH=full]1287242[/ATTACH] Your coin indeed has a strand of pearls around Faustina's head and its reverse shows a rudder set on a dolphin. It is RIC 517c; BMCRE 1067; Cohen —; Strack 495. This is no. [URL='https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1912-0710-280']1067[/URL] in the British Museum: [ATTACH=full]1287241[/ATTACH] Here is the example in my collection: [IMG]https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/faustina-jr-venus-and-rudder-denarius-jpg.1069630/[/IMG] Faustina II, AD 147-175/6. Roman AR denarius, 2.64 g, 17.4 mm, 7 h. Rome, AD 147-150. Obv: FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, bust of Faustina II, draped, right, with band of pearls round head. Rev: VENVS, Venus, standing left, holding apple or globe in right hand and rudder around which is twined a dolphin in left hand. Refs: RIC 517c; BMCRE 1067-73; RSC 266a; Strack 495; RCV 4708; CRE 233.[/QUOTE]
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