Faustina Friday – Recreating Sulzer’s Collection of Faustina the Younger, Part 1

[Roman Collector]

Friday felicitations, fellow Faustina fanatics! I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Some things are inevitable – birth, death, taxes, Zeus cheating on Hera – so you knew this installment was coming. You knew it was just a matter of time until I gave Sulzer's collection of Faustina the Younger the same attention that I gave to his collection of coins issued for her mother.



I'm going to skip the introductory discussion about Sulzer, his collection and catalog[1] because I already covered that material here. A few words about his collection of coins of Faustina the Younger are in order, however.

Modern reference works, such as BMCRE,[2] separate the coins issued under her father from those issued under her husband, and her lifetime issues from those issued posthumously, further subdividing each of these by obverse legend.[3] Sulzer does no such thing; he throws them all together in one section titled "Faustina, wife of M. Aurelius, called 'Junior'." Sulzer arranges the coins by metal and diameter, effectively sorting them by denomination: denarii first, followed by sestertii, followed by the middle bronzes. The coins of each denomination are then listed by reverse legend in roughly alphabetical order. To his credit, he lists the posthumous issues for each denomination after the lifetime issues.

Sulzer's collection of the Younger Faustina's denarii was rather incomplete, but he owned two examples of several reverse types. Most of these reverse types are known paired with bare-headed and with stephaned bust types. This makes me wonder if Sulzer owned one of each bust type. If he did, he makes no mention of the presence of a stephane. I must therefore presume his specimens were of the bare-headed bust type. In contrast, his collection of bronzes was impressive, as you'll see over the month of April.

This week's installment will cover all the denarii issued for Faustina II in Sulzer's collection. I illustrate the relevant pages from Sulzer's catalog with coins from my own collection whenever possible and with museum specimens or auction listings otherwise. Here are the pages listing the denarii in the collection.

Pages 179 and 180 of the catalog of Sulzer's collection.

Sulzer #1484:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.27 g, 17.8 mm, 6 h.
Rome, August, 156-157 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AVGVSTI PII FIL, Venus standing left, holding Victory on right hand and resting left hand on shield set on helmet.
Refs: RIC 495a; BMCRE 1099-1101; RSC/Cohen 15; RCV 4700; Strack 519; CRE 235.

Sulzer #1485:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.44 g, 16.6 mm, 7 h.
Rome, August, 156-157 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AVGVSTI PII FIL, Spes standing left, holding flower and raising skirt.
Refs: RIC 497; BMCRE 1106-08; Cohen 24; RCV 4702; Strack 518; CRE 217.

Sulzer #1486 (description is equivocal):

Sulzer's Latin description of this coin is equivocal.


 

Which is translated, "Ceres seated on modius, right hand holding grain ears, left hand a torch."

This denarius could be one of two similar coins and Sulzer doesn't distinguish between the two types. I don't fault him; neither RIC, Cohen, RSC, nor Sear list any variants of this coin. However, as I have discussed here and elsewhere, two emissions were made of a Ceres seated on cista reverse type, at least six years apart:

1. Ceres seated on cista, holding corn-ears (sometimes also with a poppy) and short transverse torch; empress wearing the Beckmann Type 7 or type 9 hairstyle.
2. Ceres seated on cista, holding corn-ears and long vertical torch; empress wearing the Beckmann Type 10 hairstyle.

The two possibilities are as follows.

Ceres with a short, transverse torch:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 2.53 g, 16.7 mm, 7 h.
Rome, 162-164 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 7 hairstyle).
Rev: CERES S C, Ceres, veiled, seated left on cista, holding corn-ears and short transverse torch.
Refs: RIC 669, BMCRE 81-84; Cohen 35, RSC 35a, RCV 5249; CRE 159; MIR 4-4/10b.

Ceres with a long, vertical torch:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.44 g, 16.6 mm, 7 h.
Rome, c. 170-175 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 10 hairstyle).
Rev: CERES S C, Ceres, veiled, seated left on cista, holding corn ears and long vertical torch.
Refs: RIC 669, BMCRE 79-80; Cohen 35, RSC 35, RCV 5249; CRE 160; MIR 3-4/10c.

Sulzer #1487-1488:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.20 g, 17.4 mm, 11 h.
Rome, late 162- early 163 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann type 7 hairstyle).
Rev: FECVNDITAS, Fecunditas standing right, holding scepter and infant.
Refs: RIC 677; BMCRE 92-93; RSC 99c; RCV 5252; CRE 176.

Sulzer #1489-1490:

Faustina Junior, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.32 g, 17.2 mm, 6 h.
Rome, December 160- early 161 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 5 hairstyle).
Rev: FECVND AVGVSTAE, Fecunditas facing, head left, between two children, holding two more in hand.
Refs: RIC 676; BMCRE 89-90; Cohen 95; Strack 520e; RCV 5251; CRE 178; MIR 10-4/10a.

Sulzer #1491-1492:

 

Faustina Junior, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.22 g, 17.0 mm, 12 h.
Rome, 161 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: SAECVLI FELICIT, Throne, upon which are seated two infant boys, Antoninus and Commodus.
Refs: RIC 711; BMCRE 136; Cohen 191; RCV 5260 var. (no stephane); CRE 221; MIR27-4/10a, b.

Sulzer #1493-1494:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.24 g, 16.6 mm, 6 h.
Rome, late 161- c. 163 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 7 coiffure).
Rev: SALVS, Salus seated left, feeding from a patera a snake rising from an altar.
Refs: RIC 714a; BMCRE 147; RSC 196a; RCV –; CRE 212; MIR 29-4/10b.

Sulzer #1495:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.36 g, 17.0 mm, 6 h.
Rome, c. December 160-162.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 5 coiffure).
Rev: VENVS, Venus standing left, holding dove in right hand and vertical scepter in left hand.
Refs: RIC 730; BMCRE 167-68; RSC/Cohen 255; Strack 520i; RCV 5266; CRE 236: MIR 32-4/10a.
Note: Date estimated by the combination of the “all-round” legend used December 160-163 and the Type 5 hairstyle, which fell into disuse shortly after the birth of her twins August 161.

Sulzer #1496:

Sulzer's specimen of this coin was likely low-grade and difficult to visualize because his description of the specimen is in error. This is his Latin description of the specimen.


 

This is translated, "FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL, head of Faustina Junior. VENVS. Image of Venus, right hand holding an apple, left hand lifting garment." There are two discrepancies in Sulzer's description. First, Sulzer uses the later nominative case titulature in his obverse description, but there are no VENVS types of similar description that were used in conjunction with this later obverse legend. There is a candidate for Sulzer 1496, however, with the dative case inscription FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL inscription and I suspect Sulzer or the typesetter simply erred in recording the obverse legend.

The second and larger discrepancy is the description of the reverse type. While there are coins issued for Faustina the Younger depicting Venus holding an apple and raising her stola, they were issued only in the quinarius aureus (RIC 514; BMCRE 1061) and middle bronze (RIC 1410a; Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Triton X, lot 644, 9 January 2007) denominations, but Sulzer's specimen is a denarius. Moreover, the depiction of Venus on these coins depicts the goddess holding an apple in her left hand and lifting her stola with her right, which is the opposite of Sulzer's description!

I think the most likely candidate for Sulzer #1496 is this coin, which is quite common and likely to be among a good general Roman collection such as Sulzer's. It takes little imagination to see how the reverse type of Venus holding an apple and rudder might be misinterpreted as Venus holding an apple and raising the hem of her garment.

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 2.64 g, 17.4 mm, 7 h.
Rome, early 148-March 149 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 1 coiffure).
Rev: VENVS, Venus, standing left, holding apple and rudder, around which a dolphin is entwined.
Refs: RIC 517c; BMCRE 1067-73; RSC 266a; Strack 495; RCV 4708; CRE 233.

Posthumous Denarii

Sulzer separates the posthumous issues from the lifetime issues of the empress, though he makes no explicit note of doing so. He had three posthumous denarii of Faustina the Younger in his collection.

Sulzer #1497-1498:

Sulzer makes a slight error in recording the obverse inscription on his two examples of this coin. He describes the legend as DIVA FAVSTINA, whereas in actuality, it reads DIVA FAVSTINA PIA. Such a mistake is easy to make if the specimens were struck off center or were worn.

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.60 g, 17.4 mm, 5 h.
Rome, 176-180 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA PIA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 10 hairstyle).
Rev: CONSECRATIO, Peacock standing right, head left.
Refs: RIC 744; BMCRE 716-17; RSC 71a; RCV 5215; MIR 58; CRE 202.

Sulzer #1499:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 2.73 g, 17.1 mm, 12 h.
Rome, 176-180 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA PIA, bare-headed and draped bust right (Beckmann Type 10 hairstyle).
Rev: CONSECRATIO, peacock standing facing with tail spread, head right.
Refs: RIC 743; BMCRE 712-13; Cohen/RSC 70; RCV --; CRE 200.

Sulzer #1500:

As was the case with nos. 1497-98, Sulzer errs in recording the obverse legend as DIVA FAVSTINA. Nonetheless, he clearly refers to this denarius.

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 2.48 g, 17.1 mm, 6 h.
Rome, 176-180 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA PIA, bare-headed and draped bust right (Beckmann Type 10 hairstyle).
Rev: CONSECRATIO, throne, draped, against which leans a transverse scepter, right; before, peacock standing right.
Refs: RIC 745; BMCRE 722-24; Cohen/RSC 73; RCV 5216; CRE 219.

Are any of your coins represented here? I’d love to see them. Please post comments, coins, or anything you feel is relevant!

~~~

Notes

1. Sulzer, Johann Caspar, and Jacob Sulzer. Numophylacium Sulzerianum numos antiquos Graecos et Romanos aureos argenteos aereos sis tens olim Iacobi Sulzeri. Ettinger, 1777. Available online here.

2. Mattingly, Harold, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. 4, Antoninus Pius to Commodus. London, 1940, reprinted with alterations 1968.

3. This isn't as accurate as you might imagine. Except for Strack, the standard references – Cohen, RIC, BMCRE, RSC, and Sear – consider the coinage with the FAVSTINA AVGVSTA obverse legend to have been issued from 161 CE onward, under Marcus Aurelius. That notion is absolutely erroneous. Strack examined a hoard of Antonine aurei found in Egypt in the 1920s that could be solidly dated to 157 CE. Among the coins in the hoard were 5 of Diana with a bow (filiation on reverse) and 2 of the Fecunditas seated with three children reverse (without filiation). Beckmann's subsequent die study shows clearly that these two types were in use exactly at the time when Faustina's filiation disappeared, marking the exact transition between coins with and without mention of her father. Therefore, we know that there was a period of four years (157-161 CE) when Faustina's coins bore only the FAVSTINA AVGVSTA legend but were issued under the hegemony of her father, not her husband. See Strack, Paul L., Untersuchungen zur Römischen Reichsprägung des Zweiten Jahrhunderts, vol. 3, Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius. Stuttgart 1937, p. 18 and Beckmann, Martin, Faustina the Younger: Coinage, Portraits, and Public Image, A.N.S. Numismatic Studies 43, American Numismatic Society, New York, 2021, pp. 52-53.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Roman Collector
Increase size of bifocal-defying font

[ambr0zie]

Great write-up, as usually.

I do have a couple of similar examples. 

#1496

Faustina II AD 147-175. Rome. AD 147-149. Denarius AR. 18 mm, 2,81 g
FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, bust of Faustina the Younger, band of pearls round head, with hair waived and coiled on back of head, draped, right / VENVS, Venus, draped, standing left, holding apple in right hand and rudder set on dolphin, in left
RIC III Antoninus Pius 517C, BMCRE 1067-73; RSC 266a; Strack 495; RCV 4708; CRE 233

#1489-1490

Faustina II AD 147-175. Rome
Denarius AR, AD 160 (December). 17 mm, 3,16 g
FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, Draped bust right, hair in chignon behind / FECVND AVGVSTAE, Faustina as Fecunditas, standing front, head left, holding infant in each arm, two other young children standing beside her to left and right, holding onto her gown
RIC III Marcus Aurelius 676, RSC II 95, Sear RCV II 5251, BMCRE 89
 

 

[Roman Collector]

21 hours ago, ambr0zie said:

Great write-up, as usually.

I do have a couple of similar examples. 

#1496

Faustina II AD 147-175. Rome. AD 147-149. Denarius AR. 18 mm, 2,81 g
FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, bust of Faustina the Younger, band of pearls round head, with hair waived and coiled on back of head, draped, right / VENVS, Venus, draped, standing left, holding apple in right hand and rudder set on dolphin, in left
RIC III Antoninus Pius 517C, BMCRE 1067-73; RSC 266a; Strack 495; RCV 4708; CRE 233

#1489-1490

Faustina II AD 147-175. Rome
Denarius AR, AD 160 (December). 17 mm, 3,16 g
FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, Draped bust right, hair in chignon behind / FECVND AVGVSTAE, Faustina as Fecunditas, standing front, head left, holding infant in each arm, two other young children standing beside her to left and right, holding onto her gown
RIC III Marcus Aurelius 676, RSC II 95, Sear RCV II 5251, BMCRE 89
 

 

Those are lovely denarii, @ambr0zie! The VENVS type has a portrait of very fine style! Here's mine. The die engraver wasn't nearly as skilled (or sober).

And here's yours again for comparison.

It's not hard to see which portrait best resembles her portrait at the Capitoline Museum.

[Sulla80]

@Roman Collector an enjoyable set of posts on this 18th century collection.  Here is another Faustina with Venus "raising the hem of her garment" (or "dolphin-entwined rudder")

Edited April 1, 2023 by Sulla80

[Roman Collector]

Thank you for the kind words, @Sulla80, and for sharing a photo of your specimen of the VENVS type. The goddess on your coin has stars on her midriff! Some numismatists have said that star-spangled drapery is indicative of Aeternitas; your coin argues against this notion.

[Marsyas Mike]

A particularly thrilling Faustina Friday for me, as I think I have seven - seven! - coins from this Salzer installment.  As usual with these posts, @Roman Collector research gets plugged into my attributions.  Here I'll drop the full attribution - and apologies in advance for the poor photography; these are due for a re-shoot

Sulzer #1484; RIC III Antoninus Pius 495a; Venus w. shield and helmet:

Sulzer #1485: RIC III Antoninus Pius 497; Spes

 

Sulzer #1495: RIC III Marcus Aurelius 730; Venus w. dove

 

Sulzer #1497-1498: RIC III Marcus Aurelius 744; peacock

 

Sulzer #1487-1488: RIC III Marcus Aurelius 677; Fecunditas w. one child

 

Sulzer #1489-1490: RIC III Marcus Aurelius 676; Fecunditas w. 4 kids

 

Sulzer #1491-1492: RIC III Marcus Aurelius 711; 2 kids, one headless(!), on a throne

 

Thanks for the fine post, @Roman Collector

[Roman Collector]

Thank you for your kind words, @Marsyas Mike!! Thanks for sharing your examples of these Sulzer collection coins! Faustina coins are like Pokemon! Gotta catch 'em all!!!

[Sulla80]

5 hours ago, Roman Collector said:

Thank you for the kind words, @Sulla80, and for sharing a photo of your specimen of the VENVS type. The goddess on your coin has stars on her midriff! Some numismatists have said that star-spangled drapery is indicative of Aeternitas; your coin argues against this notion.

It does seem that this might just have been a popular jeweled dress - here's my favorite of this type:

Edited April 1, 2023 by Sulla80

[arizonarobin]

I was hoping for this! I will be looking forward to your Friday posts to see the rest of the entries and your insights!

Here are my mine (some of these are my favorite Faustina II coins):

Sulzer #1485:

Sulzer #1487-1488:

Sulzer #1489-1490:

Sulzer #1491-1492:

Sulzer #1493-1494:

 

Sulzer #1496:

Sulzer #1497-1498:

Sulzer #1499:

Sulzer #1500:

[Roman Collector]

3 hours ago, arizonarobin said:

I was hoping for this! I will be looking forward to your Friday posts to see the rest of the entries and your insights!

Here are my mine (some of these are my favorite Faustina II coins):

Sulzer #1485:

Sulzer #1487-1488:

Sulzer #1489-1490:

Sulzer #1491-1492:

Sulzer #1493-1494:

 

Sulzer #1496:

Sulzer #1497-1498:

Sulzer #1499:

Sulzer #1500:

Very beautiful! You have a wonderful collection of Faustina II denarii!