IVLIA PAVLA - diademed and draped bust right CONCORDIA SC - Concordia seated left, holding patera and double cornucopia, star in left field, Sestertius, Rome 220 A.D. 30 mm / 21.49g RIC Elagabalus 381; Cohen 8, BMCRE 415; Sear RCV 7660, Banti 7 Please show your coins of the three lucky consorts of Heliogabalus (lucky in the sense that they survived)! A Sestertius anybody?
Beautiful! I don't think I've ever seen her in imperial bronze before. I have all three of his wives Julia Paula, denarius Aquilia Severa, denarius I'm not made of money, so Annia Faustina will have to remain provincial for me
Nice. My only JP Julia Paula (219 - 220 A.D.) AR Denarius O: IVLIA PAVLA AVG, Draped bust right. R: CONCORDIA, Concordia seated left, patera in right, left elbow resting on arm of throne, star in left field. Rome 3.1g 18.3mm RSC 6a , RIC 211
Here are my JP and AS. Julia Paula 20mm, 2.86g Ex Savoca Aquilia Severa AR Denarius. Rome, AD 220-222. IVLIA AQVILIA SEVERA AVG, draped bust to right / CONCORDIA, Concordia standing facing, head to left, holding patera over lighted altar and double cornucopiae; star in left field. RIC IV 225 (Elagabalus); BMCRE 185 (Elagabalus); RSC 2a. 2.81g, 18mm, 7h. Ex Vitangelo Collection Ex Roma
Just a Julia Paula denarius here. 17 mm, 1,93 g RIC IV Elagabalus 211 S; BMCRE 172 (Elagabalus); RSC 6a Obv: IVLIA PAVLA AVG, Bust of Julia Paula, hair waved and fastened in plait, draped, right / Rev: CONCORDIA, Concordia, draped, seated left, holding patera in extended right hand; in field, star
Wow!! Bronzes of any of Elagabalus' wives are hard to come by! Coingratulations, @Julius Germanicus! Here are my Julia Paula coins:
They are indeed quite rare. I did a die study and could locate a total population of 104 Sestertii of Julia Paula in museums and auction catalogues (Banti knew of 50 specimens in 1987), while there are more than 2.000 Denarii known. The total known population of genuine Roman mint coins of Annia Faustina seems to be just 5 (five) Denarii and 8 (eight) Sestertii (all from a single pair of dies, six of those in museums). My Annia Faustina is a (modernish but seemingly unique) struck bronze coin of Dupondius size, weight, and metal colour: ANNIA FAVSTINA AVGVSTA - bust right, wearing paludamentum, stephane on head CONCORDIA S C - Elagabalus and Annia Faustina clasping hands, star in-between 26 mm / 9,81 gr / 6 h struck brass “Dupondius”, ca. 1900 (?) cf. RIC 399, BMCRE 451, Cohen 2, Sear RCV 7701, Banti 2 (all describing Sestertius)
I have two coins of Julia Paula: Julia Paula (first wife of Elagabalus). AR Denarius 219-220 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. IVLIA PAVLA AVG, draped bust right / Rev. CONCORDIA, Concordia seated left, holding patera; star in left field. RIC IV-2 211 (Elagabalus), RSC III 6a, BMCRE 172 (Elagabalus). 21 mm., 2.49 g., 6h. Julia Paula (first wife of Elagabalus), AE 21, 219-220 AD, Mysia, Parium [Parion in Greek]. Obv. Draped and diademed bust right, IVLIA P-AVLA AVG / Rev. Capricorn right, holding globe between hooves, cornucopia above, CGIHP [Colonia Gemella Ivlia Hadriana Pariana -- colony founded by Julius Caesar] below. RPC [Roman Provincial Coinage] Vol. VI, 3858 (temporary); RPC Online at https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/3858; Lindgren & Kovacs 289 [Lindgren, H.C. & Kovacs, F.L., Ancient Bronze Coins of Asia Minor and the Levant (San Mateo, CA 1985). 21 mm., 5.67 g., 10 h. (Purchased from VAuctions, Pars Coins, Sale 354, Lot 195, Nov. 16, 2020.) And one of Aquilia Severa: Aquilia Severa (second wife of Elagabalus), AR Denarius 220-222 AD, Rome mint. Obv: IVLIA AQVILIA SEVERA AVG, Draped bust right/ Rev: CONCORDIA, Concordia standing left, holding patera over lighted altar and double cornucopiae; star in lower right field. RIC IV-2 226 (Elagabalus); RSC III 2. 18 mm., 3.2 g. Rare. I doubt I'll ever find an Annia Faustina I can afford!
With AVGG reverse: Julia Paula. Augusta, 219-220 AD. AR Denarius (19mm; 2.51 gm; 12h). Rome mint. Obv: Draped bust right. Rev: Concordia seated right on curule chair, holding patera and double cornucopia. RIC IV 216; RSC 16a.
Thank you all for showing your beautiful Denarii! I must admit that I don't have a single Denarius left in my collection. There is certainly a greater variety of designs available on the silver coinage of Julia Paula than on the Sestertii. I really like your first specimen with the couple clasping hands! That reverse type is the first emission for each consort (dated to 219 by Sear, while he dates the rest of Paula´s coinage to 220) and extremely rare for Sestertii of Julia Paula (I only found four specimens from a single obverse die) and Aquilia Severa (seemingly unique), while it is the exclusive type for Annia Faustina (proving that her marriage cannot have lasted much longer than the wedding ceremony itself). I do not know how the VENVS GENETRIX reverse features in this scheme, as it is exclusive to Denarii. One can also identify a progression of different hairstyles on the coins of Julia Paula and I noticed that while the earliest three Sestertius dies of Julia Paula feature her bare headed (like seemingly all Denarii do), all later Sestertii show her wearing a stephane. Here is my Sestertius of Aquilia Severa: IVLIA AQVILIA SEVERA AVG – diademed and draped bust right CONCORDIA AVG – Concordia standing left, sacrificing over lighted altar and holding double cornucopiae, star in right field Sestertius, Rome mint, early 221 A.D. 18.92 g / 30,0 mm / 12 h RIC IV 390 (Elagabalus), pl. VII.3 (same reverse die); Cohen 4 (same dies); BMCRE 433, plate 96.8 (same obverse die), Banti 4 (same obverse die), Sear RCV II, 7681 (same dies), Hunter 3, plate 41 (same dies)
It's weird how many of the sestertii of Julia Paula seem to resemble each other in fabric and wear - as if they were all found at the same time. I have noticed that with other sesterttii - groups of coins with the same patina, same fabric not necessarily die matched but clearly by the same celator. I wish I could think of examples of will try to find some on ACSEARCH
Thank you, Blake! I won the coin at the Dix Noonan Auction 194 in September. It is from a British collection and was presumably bought at Spink around the 1990s, but I have none of their catalogues to check. That would be an interesting aspect! Here is the the reverse of my coin next to 3 other Sestertii sharing the same reverse die: And here is the obverse next to the catalogue pictures of 17 Sestertii that to me look like obverse die matches:
This is fascinating! The portraits are quite beautiful. - if I can find the time I will try to put up my Aquila Severa, which is very worn - but I am lucky to have it. My Julia Paula is in the safe deposit box - I will retrieve it and post a photo next chance I get. I believe it is from the same die as these - Blake
This is my Aquilia Severa, CONCORDIA standing, purchased from Heritage a couple of years ago. The flip is almost as interesting as the coin - it says "former Webb collection", then the notation in pencil "really Walters collection" then the word "Knobloch." As to this empress, she was the second of four marriages by Elagabalus - twice to Severa. At the time of her marriage, she was a Vestal Virgin, not exactly marriage material, since the penalty for not being celibate was being buried alive. That might not be a concern here given that Elagabalus was far more interested in men than woman. Elagabalus fancied himself the sun God El-Gabal and when marrying himself to Severa, he may have thought that he was conducting a symbolic marriage to Vesta, a moon Goddess (?). Maesa soon had the marriage to Severa annulled, with Elagabalus next marrying Annia Faustina. To the sorrow of future ancient coin collectors lacking the means to pay into the five figures for coins, that marriage did not last, with Elagabalus remarrying Severa until Maesa finally lost all patience had him and his mom Julia Soaemias done away with in 222AD. Some sources claim that Severa was forced to marry against her will, a reasonable assumption, given her position. However, marriage was traditional for the emperor - probably Julia Maesa, who was running the show, urged him to get married, but was unhappy about his choices.
Our Aquilia Severa Sestertii are from the same (AV 1) of the two obverse dies, but your reverse is from a different die (RV 6) than mine (RV 3):
