A Faustina Snack

[Roman Collector]

With the Leu auction being postponed for three weeks, my coin budget for the next few weeks was freed up and I decided to get a little snack to satisfy my ancient coin craving!

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman provincial Æ 17.6 mm, 3.59 g, 6 h.
Mysia, Germe ad Rhyndakos, under Sex. I. Faustos (first archon), 2nd emission, AD 147 - c. 152.
Obv: ΦΑVϹΤЄΙΝΑ NЄΑ; draped bust of Faustina II, right, wearing circlet of pearls around head (Beckmann Type 1 coiffure).
Rev: ΓƐΡΜΗΝΩΝ; Apollo Kitharoedos in long, belted chiton, standing, facing, head left, holding patera and lyre;  ΦΑV monogram (for Faustos, the archon) in lower r. field.
Refs: RPC IV.2 647 (temporary); SNG von Aulock 1109 (same dies), Imhoof-Blumer GRMK p. 117, 3; SNG Fitzwilliam 4229; Ehling 116 (O5/R5).

Yes, it's a Faustina coin, but there's not enough to say about it to make it a full installment of Faustina Friday. But it's amazing what you can learn from one impulse purchase. Here are some interesting facts I learned from this coin.

I had been pronouncing "Mysia" wrong all this time. I had been pronouncing it in my mind as my-SEE-a for the past 30+ years. I called the dealer -- yes, on the PHONE 😲 -- and he pronounced it MISS-i-a. So, I did a bit of Googling and learned that the dealer was right and I had been pronouncing it wrong for decades. Source 1. Source 2.

There were two towns named Germe: Germe ad Rhyndakos situated between the rivers Macestus and Rhyndacus in Mysia, and Germa ad Caicus in Lydia near Pergamon. SNG Cop includes the city under Lydia, and BMC Greek lists the coins in their collection under both Lydia and Mysia, but recent scholarship indicates that only Germe ad Rhyndakos in Mysia struck coins. Here are both cities on this map of Mysia (MISS-i-a). The coin is from the one in the upper right (left-facing arrow).

Although mentioned by Ptolemy (Geography) and Stephanus of Byzantium, the city was "insignificant" and we know little about it.

Other cool facts:

The coin was also issued in silver! 😲

The coin was issued early in Faustina's reign. It features the obverse legend ΦΑVϹΤЄΙΝΑ NЄΑ, meaning Faustina Junior. Moreover, it features the empress in her first (Beckmann type 1) hairstyle. The perceived need to distinguish Faustina the younger from her mother points to a very early emission. RPC reports it is issue 2 of Antoninus Pius (who assumed the throne in AD 138), and this suggests a date shortly after Faustina II became Augusta in December, AD 147. Taking into account that it may have taken some time for information about the empress's hairstyles to reach Mysia, I think it's reasonable to assign a terminus ante quem of c. AD 152, though RPC gives a much wider date range. There were later issues that depict Faustina in her Beckmann type 5 hairstyle that no longer have NЄΑ in her titulature, but her title of ΦΑVϹΤЄΙΝΑ ϹЄΒΑϹΤΗ (Faustina Augusta). RPC dates these to AD 161-165. I think this is a bit late on the basis of the hairstyle. I would assign it to c. 155-162.

Post the snacks you have acquired recently!

Edited July 1, 2022 by Roman Collector
I have OCD

[ambr0zie]

A very tasty snack, @Roman Collector.

Cool reverse - I am not a big fan of reverses with *somebody* sitting or standing, but you can't avoid them, anyways reverses with Apollo and his lyre are attractive.

Here is my latest snack (for me, snack means "a coin not in my primary interest list, but catching my eye and cheap" - for you, any Faustina coin does not meet the first criteria :D"

 

Maxentius AD 309-312. Ostia
Follis Æ
25 mm, 6,74 g
IMP C MAXENTIVS P F AVG: Head of Maxentius, laureate, right / VICTOR-IA A-E-TERNA AVG, Victory, winged, draped, advancing left, holding wreath in right hand and palm in left hand //MOSTS
RIC VI Ostia 54

 

I don't actively collect LRBs but adding a new emperor wasn't something I want to miss especially since the details are very much there and the coin was cheap.

Edited June 26, 2022 by ambr0zie

[curtislclay]

I think I have always pronounced it MOO-see-a, (MOO like a cow), perhaps incorrectly.

The silver specimen you cite brings back an unhappy memory: I bought that coin from the Gorny sale of 1998, then sent it to Oxford so they could inspect it before inclusion in RPC, but somehow they misplaced it so were unable to send it back! Perhaps it will eventually still turn up somewhere and be returned to me.

 

 

[Spaniard]

From one obsessive to another..

A quick Kashmir 8 buck snack..But not as easy to find as you think🙂

INDIA - KASHMIR SULTANATE - MUHAMMAD SHAH MIR (1484-1537 AD) 1 KASERAH

K47, Denomination: 1 Kaserah, Date: 1484-1537 AD, Composition: Copper, Size: 21.20 mm, Weight: 4.92 Gram

RULER: SHAH MIR DYNASTY: MUHAMMAD SHAH: AH 889-943 / 1484-1537 AD

Edited June 26, 2022 by Spaniard

[Ryro]

If that is a snack, I like your eating habits!

I've been snacking myself...

The normal shield/ half unit is what most are used to seeing when it comes to Macedonian shield coins. But these much more rare tinnies come around now and again. So I got a little upgrade snack:

Antioch on the Orontes. Antiochos I Soter 281-261 BC.
Bronze Æ

10 mm, 1,64 g

very fine

This one is rare (only 5 on ac search) and struck me as kind of spooky and strange. So I picked it up as well:

Macedon. Thessalonica. Pseudo-autonomous issue . Time of Nero to Vespasian, AD 54-79 Bronze Æ 14mm., 1.59 Horse prancing left, star (?) above / ΘEC-CAΛO-NIKE-WN, legend in four lines within wreath. very fine Lindgren 78; RPC 324.

 

PS, how sure are you that it is not MICE-EE-A? You may have just blown my mind

Edited June 26, 2022 by Ryro
Miss-ee-a?