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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 2849145, member: 81887&quot;]Still clearing up the backlog of cool new coins I haven&#039;t posted yet.&nbsp; Here&#039;s one I won in Ken Dorney&#039;s recent auction:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]675773[/ATTACH] </p><p>Roman Empire, Rome mint.&nbsp; AR denarius (18mm, 3.42g).&nbsp; Faustina Junior, wife of Antoninus Pius (161-175 AD).&nbsp; Obverse: Draped bust right, FAVSTINA AVGVSTA around. Reverse: Fecunditas (or Faustina?) standing with two babies in her arms and two children at her feet, FECVND AVGVSTAE around.&nbsp; RIC (Marcus Aurelius) 676.</p><p><br /></p><p>Faustina Junior was probably born in 130 AD (exact date is uncertain), daughter of the soon-to-be-emperor Antoninus Pius and Faustina Senior.&nbsp; She was married to Marcus Aurelius, already the heir apparent to Antoninus Pius, in 145 AD, and bore his first child in 147 AD.&nbsp; Relatively little is known of her adult life, but she was rumored to have taken many lovers, to have ordered various murders, and even to have secretly backed a revolt against Marcus Aurelius in 175 AD.&nbsp; Despite all this, she was popular, especially with the army, and Aurelius remained devoted to her.&nbsp; She died in late 175 AD, and was promptly deified.&nbsp; During her life she gave birth to a total of 13 children, only a few of whom survived to adulthood; one would become the emperor Commodus, who today is most famous for murdering Russell Crowe in the film &quot;Gladiator&quot;.&nbsp; Faustina&#039;s fertility is celebrated on a number of coin types, of which this is one of the more common.&nbsp; I especially like the realistic way the two older children are trying to get their mother&#039;s attention despite the fact that she is already busy with two babies in her arms.&nbsp; (RIC describes the adult figure on the reverse as Fecunditas, but I like to imagine it is Faustina herself, even though she doubtless had an army of servants/slaves to do the actual hard work of child-rearing.)&nbsp; Please post your coins of the very fertile Faustina.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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