Faustina Friday – Recreating Sulzer’s Collection of Faustina the Younger, Part 2

[Roman Collector]

Friday felicitations, fellow Faustina fanatics! I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead. Last week we revisited the collection of Johann Sulzer and illustrated all the denarii in his Faustina the Younger section with coins from my collection. He may have had few denarii in his collection, but rest assured, we will be occupied with the bronze issues for several weeks. I continue this week by illustrating about a dozen of the many sestertii of the collection. These coins are listed on pages 180-181of the catalog to his collection.

As was the case with the denarii, the sestertii are not separated into those issued under Antoninus Pius and those under Marcus Aurelius, but are all listed together in one section titled "Faustina, wife of M. Aurelius, called 'Junior'." They are then arranged by reverse legend in roughly alphabetical order. To his credit, he lists the posthumous issues for each denomination after the lifetime issues.

Sulzer owned two examples of several reverse types. Many 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.

As with previous installments dealing with Sulzer's collection, I illustrate the relevant pages from his catalog with coins from my own collection whenever possible and with museum specimens or auction listings otherwise. Here are the pages listing roughly the first dozen sestertii in the collection.

Catalog numbers 1501-1514 of Sulzer's collection.

Sulzer #1501:

Holy smoke from the eternal flame in the Temple of Vesta!! What a way to start the bronze section of the collection! This coin is an extremely rare sestertius or medallion depicting three priests and three Vestals sacrificing over an altar before a hexastyle temple! There are apparently only two known! If Sulzer's specimen was genuine and not a cast forgery, then it is likely that one of the two known specimens was in the collection of Sulzer himself!!

Cayón, Juan R., Los Sestercios del Imperio Romano, vol. II, De Adriano A Faustina Madre (Del 117 d.C. al 161 d.C.), Madrid, 1984, p.177, 97 = Gerhard Hirsch, Munich (Auction 31), 28.5.1962 or (Auction 32), 22.10.1962.

Sulzer #1502:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 29.89 g, 31.0 mm, 6 h.
Rome, August, 156-157 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 5 hairstyle).
Rev: AVGVSTI PII FIL S C, Spes standing left, holding flower and raising skirt.
Refs: RIC 1371; BMCRE 2200-01; Cohen 25; RCV 4711; Strack 1332.

Sulzer #1503:

This sestertius bears the FAVSTINA AVGVSTA obverse legend and the filiation AVGVSTI PII FIL S C on its reverse like #1502, above, but depicts Venus Victrix standing facing, head left, holding Victory on extended right hand and resting left hand on shield, set on helmet.

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 24.69 g, 32.3 mm, 12 h.
Rome, August 156-157 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AVGVSTI PII FIL S C, Venus standing facing, head left, holding Victory on extended right hand and resting left hand on shield, set on helmet.
Refs: RIC 1367; BMCRE 2195-97; Cohen 16; Sear 4709; Strack 1333.

Sulzer #1504:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 22.20 g, 33.2 mm, 11 h.
Rome, August, 156-157 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 5 hairstyle).
Rev: AVGVSTI PII FIL S C, Concordia standing left, holding patera and cornucopia.
Refs: RIC 1368; BMCRE 2198-99; Cohen 22; RCV 4710; Strack 1328 (Berlin, Paris, Vienna).
Note: This coin also exists as a variety depicting Concordia leaning on a column, Strack 1328 (Munich, Naples, Milan, and St. Petersburg); RIC --; BMCRE --; Cohen --; RCV –.

Sulzer #1505:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 21.28 g, 31.9 mm, 5 h.
Rome, late 162 – early 163 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 7 hairstyle).
Rev: FECVNDITAS SC, (Faustina as) Fecunditas standing right, holding scepter and infant.
Refs: RIC 1638; BMCRE 905; Cohen 101; RCV 5274.
Note: Issued to commemorate the birth of Marcus Annius Verus, born in 162 and named after his great-grandfather, Marcus Annius Verus, the father of Faustina I.

Sulzer #1506:

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman oricalchum sestertius, 22.36 gm, 33.7 mm, 12 h.
Rome, December AD 160.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann Type 5 hairstyle).
Rev: FECVND AVGVSTAE S C, (Faustina as) Fecunditas standing left, between two children (thought to represent Faustina III and Lucilla), holding two infants in her arms (thought to represent Fadilla and Cornificia).
Refs: RIC 1635; BMCRE 902-904; Cohen 96; Strack 1336; RCV 5273; MIR 10.
Note: Issued to commemorate the birth of Marcus Aurelius' and Faustina II's daughter Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor, known simply as Cornificia.

Sulzer #1507:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 23.36 g, 30.0 mm, 6 h.
Rome, c. 166 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right, (Beckmann Type 7 hairstyle).
Rev: HILARITAS S C, Hilaritas standing facing, head left, holding long palm and cornucopiae.
Refs: RIC 1642; BMCRE 911-13; Cohen 112; RCV 5275.
Note: May have been issued to commemorate her husband’s victory over the Parthians, which he shared with Lucius Verus, for which the co-emperors celebrated a triumph in October 166.

Sulzer #1508:

This coin doesn't exist exactly as described in Sulzer's catalog. Here’s the Latin listing.



This is translated as, "FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, head of Faustina Junior. HILARITAS S. C. Hilaritas standing, right hand holding upright patera, left hand a cornucopiae."

There are three possibilities. The first is that it's a duplicate specimen of #1507 that was worn or damaged and the palm branch was misinterpreted by Sulzer as a patera. This is certainly possible, but it's odd that Sulzer would describe the patera as "erectam" (upright), which is the same adjective he uses in #1507 to describe the palm branch (best translated there as "vertical"). This brings us to the second possibility: that the coin is a duplicate specimen of #1507 and either Sulzer or the typesetter simply wrote "pateram" instead of "palmam." That makes a lot of sense, except for the fact that Sulzer doesn't describe duplicates so redundantly; rather, he almost invariably uses "idem nummus" (same coin) to note duplicate specimens. The third possibility is that he's describing the following middle bronze, but misinterpreting its inscription and taking it as a sestertius.

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman Æ as, 12.67 g, 25.1 mm, 11 h.
Rome, c. 161-166 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right, (Beckmann Type 7 hairstyle).
Rev: CONCORDIA S C, Concordia standing facing, head left, holding patera in extended right hand and double cornucopia in left hand.
Refs: RIC 1625; BMCRE 968; C 48; RCV 5291; MIR 6-7/10b.

Let's assume that Sulzer correctly described the figure on the reverse as holding a patera and cornucopiae. Such a figure is undoubtedly to be identified as Concordia. Moreover, note Sulzer's description of the diameter as E (epsilon). This is a diameter he sometimes uses to describe sestertii struck on small flans and sometimes to describe middle bronzes struck on large flans. It's possible that Sulzer owned a larger than average specimen of the CONCORDIA standing middle bronze that was worn and he mistook the CONCORDIA legend as reading HILARITAS. He does not list this reverse type among the middle bronzes where it would belong, though he does mention the CONCORDIA seated type (#1542). None of these three possibilities is particularly persuasive; I think it simply suggests that this specimen in his collection was poorly preserved and difficult to attribute.

Sulzer #1509-1511:

Sulzer had three specimens of this coin. Whether any of them featured the empress with a stephaned bust – which is the more common of the bust types for this issue – is anyone's guess. I illustrate the bare-headed version as the default since Sulzer doesn't comment at all about the presence of a stephane.

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 26.63 g, 33.2 mm, 12 h.
Rome, 166-170 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right, (Beckmann Type 7 hairstyle).
Rev: IVNO S C, Juno standing left, holding patera and scepter; at left, peacock.
Refs: RIC 1645; BMCRE 914-15; Cohen 121; RCV –; MIR 17-6/10b.

Sulzer #1512-13:

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 24.02 g, 29.5 mm, 11 h.
Rome, c. 161-164 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust right; double circlet of pearls around head (Beckmann type 7 hairstyle).
Rev: IVNONI REGINAE, Juno standing left, holding patera and scepter, peacock at feet.
Refs: RIC 1651; BMCRE 919-921; Cohen 142; RCV 5278; MIR 19.
Notes: Ex Christian Blom. Also known with bare-headed bust and Beckmann hairstyle 8 and with stephane (BMC 922).

Sulzer #1514:

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 24.87 g, 32.5 mm, 11 h.
Rome, late 162 – early 163 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust of Faustina II, right, with a double strand of pearls in the hair.
Rev: LAETITIA S C, Laetitia standing facing, head left, holding wreath in right hand and vertical scepter in left hand.
Refs: RIC 1654; BMCRE 924-27; Cohen 149; RCV 5279; MIR 21-6/10b.
Note: Like Sulzer #1506, this reverse type was issued to commemorate the birth of Marcus Annius Verus, born in 162 and named after his great-grandfather, Marcus Annius Verus, the father of Faustina I.

Next week, we will continue with the sestertii on page 182 of the catalog of Sulzer's collection.

Do you have any examples of the sestertii illustrated here? Let's see them! Post comments or anything you feel is relevant!

Edited July 11, 2023 by Roman Collector
New photo

[Ryro]

Great write up and coins, my man!

Great, now I want the third known example of the sacrificing Vestal virgins and priests... if it exists. 

[arizonarobin]

Wonderful write up, I wouldn't mind a Sacrificing Vestal virgins and priests coin also. 😁

I unfortunately only have one Sestertius of Faustina II and it does not fall in these pages! I am looking forward to the next edition of FF!

[Roman Collector]

Thanks for the kind words, @Ryro and @arizonarobin! I agree! That Vestal virgins and priests medallion/sestertius is something else! Here's the only other known example.

Bani, Stefano, Mauro Benci and Alessandro Vanni, I Medaglioni Romani del Montiere del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, vol. 1, (Florence, 2011), p.42, 30 = Museo Arch. Naz., Florence (35725/164)

 

[Marsyas Mike]

Another terrific installment of Sulzer & Faustina Friday @Roman Collector.  Keep up the good work.

I actually have a few of these: 

Sulzer 1503 (RIC III Antoninus Pius 1367 )

Sulzer 1507 (RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1642)

Sulzer 1509-1511 (RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1645) - very square!

Sulzer 1505 (RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1638) - I have three of these, one with a continuous obverse legend, and two typical split-legends of various degrees of decrepitude:

Sulzer 1514 (RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1654) - another square one:

Sulzer 1512-1513 (RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1651)