The first Faustina Friday of my household

[zanzi]

I have very pleased to announce that my humble house has happily received a handful of silver denarii, making me edible to celebrate my first Faustina Friday. To be honest, I do not know much about the Faustinas but @Roman Collector's frequent and interesting posts has drawn my attention to them. A few months back I bought my first 'woman coin', that is to mean not a deity, which was a limes denarius of Lucilla with a Vesta reverse. I posted a thread about it and even got it listed as a 'plate coin' on Wildwinds.

These two denarii of Faustina the Elder are admittedly in quite poor condition but they fit snugly in my budget, and I am very happy to have them. These two are out of the five denarii I purchased, which are the first Roman silver coins I have bought. I've stuck to bronze and the limes denarius prior to this. Both are "DIVA", and so after Faustina had passed: the ANS website lists both as 141 AD issues.

Roman Empire
Empress Faustina the Elder, wife of Antoninus Pius
141 AD
AR denarius
O: Bust of Faustina right, DIVA FAVSTINA
R: Goddess Ceres standing left, holding grain heads and a torch, AVGVSTA
Weight: 2.5 grams
Size: 17.9mm - 18.3mm - 1.8mm
RIC III #360a
Uploaded to Numista as an example, as well as to Zeno.ru 346182

 

Roman Empire
Empress Faustina the Elder, wife of Antoninus Pius
141 AD
AR denarius
O: Bust of Faustina right, DIVA FAVSTINA
R: Empty throne, draped and ornamented, faces forward with a wreath sitting and a sceptre leaning across
Weight: 2.8 grams
Size: 17.8mm - 18.7mm - 1.7mm
RIC III #377
Uploaded to Numista as an example, as well as to Zeno.ru 346183

 

One question I have- what is the 'floor' price for poor quality, but still identifiable, silver denarii like this? I paid about US$20 each for these which felt fair, but I'm not sure how much a bargain they were either. Does it get much cheaper than this?

I have not much more to say, except that I am excited to add a new Empress to my collection. I thank Roman Collector for their interesting threads and making her name stand out to me which inspired me to buy these. I'm sure someone here has better quality examples of these denarii which I would love to see. Someday I might feel the need to upgrade but today I am very happy with them in my collection. I encourage anyone else to share their Faustina coins, or experience being "peer pressured" into buying something which you otherwise probably would not have.

[Roman Collector]

I'm very happy that my series of Faustina Friday write-ups has inspired you to expand your collection to include coins of Faustina the Elder! Thank you for your kind words. Your first coin with the Ceres reverse dates to 145-147 CE. You may read about the AVGVSTA/Ceres with grain ears and a single torch issues at this link. Here is the specimen in my collection.

 

Faustina I, 138-140 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 2.69 g, 18.2 mm, 7 h.
Rome, 145-147 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AVGVSTA, Ceres, veiled and draped, standing left, holding two corn-ears in right hand and torch in left hand.
Refs: RIC 360a; BMCRE 408-414; Cohen/RSC 78; RCV 4582; Strack 474; CRE 76.

I have not written a Faustina Friday specifically about your second coin. There are numerous denarii of Faustina I with a throne on the reverse, differing in reverse legend, left-facing or right-facing bust, bare-headed or veiled bust, whether or not a peacock is present, the position of the peacock, the direction a scepter may be pointing, and the presence or absence of a wreath. There are variations in breaks in the obverse legends and so on. Almost all of them range from scarce to very rare. These were issued during her lifetime, and you may read about them here.

Your coin is one of the pulvinar types issued after her death. Temeryazev and Makarenko list it as "scarce," with which I agree. It probably dates to 150 CE (10th death anniversary) or later. It was only issued in silver and thus falls outside of Beckmann's die-linkage studies of the aurei and sestertii of Diva Faustina. Here's the specimen in my collection.

Faustina II, 138-140 CE.
Roman AR Denarius, 17.6 mm, 3.71 g, 6 h.
Rome, 150 - 161 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAV-STINA, diademed and draped bust right.
Rev: AVGV-STA, scepter leaning against draped throne upon which wreath sits.
Refs: RIC III 377 (Pius); BMCRE 455 (Pius); RSC 131; RCV 4590; CRE 143.

 

[zanzi]

21 hours ago, Roman Collector said:

I'm very happy that my series of Faustina Friday write-ups has inspired you to expand your collection to include coins of Faustina the Elder! Thank you for your kind words. Your first coin with the Ceres reverse dates to 145-147 CE. You may read about the AVGVSTA/Ceres with grain ears and a single torch issues at this link. Here is the specimen in my collection.

 

Faustina I, 138-140 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 2.69 g, 18.2 mm, 7 h.
Rome, 145-147 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AVGVSTA, Ceres, veiled and draped, standing left, holding two corn-ears in right hand and torch in left hand.
Refs: RIC 360a; BMCRE 408-414; Cohen/RSC 78; RCV 4582; Strack 474; CRE 76.

I have not written a Faustina Friday specifically about your second coin. There are numerous denarii of Faustina I with a throne on the reverse, differing in reverse legend, left-facing or right-facing bust, bare-headed or veiled bust, whether or not a peacock is present, the position of the peacock, the direction a scepter may be pointing, and the presence or absence of a wreath. There are variations in breaks in the obverse legends and so on. Almost all of them range from scarce to very rare. These were issued during her lifetime, and you may read about them here.

Your coin is one of the pulvinar types issued after her death. Temeryazev and Makarenko list it as "scarce," with which I agree. It probably dates to 150 CE (10th death anniversary) or later. It was only issued in silver and thus falls outside of Beckmann's die-linkage studies of the aurei and sestertii of Diva Faustina. Here's the specimen in my collection.

Faustina II, 138-140 CE.
Roman AR Denarius, 17.6 mm, 3.71 g, 6 h.
Rome, 150 - 161 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAV-STINA, diademed and draped bust right.
Rev: AVGV-STA, scepter leaning against draped throne upon which wreath sits.
Refs: RIC III 377 (Pius); BMCRE 455 (Pius); RSC 131; RCV 4590; CRE 143.

 

Thank you very much for the added information and better dates! Of course, your examples are much nicer than mine, but it is interesting to compare them. It's interesting that your two have the obverse split DIVAFAV-STINA while my two have it split DIVA-FAVSTINA. The word Pulvinar is new to me. May I ask what the pulvinar-throne is meant to symbolize? I figured the empty throne was intended to represent her passing, but seeing that there are lifetime issues with it, that is obviously incorrect. Thanks again, this is all quite interesting to me

[Roman Collector]

1 hour ago, zanzi said:

Thank you very much for the added information and better dates! Of course, your examples are much nicer than mine, but it is interesting to compare them. It's interesting that your two have the obverse split DIVAFAV-STINA while my two have it split DIVA-FAVSTINA. The word Pulvinar is new to me. May I ask what the pulvinar-throne is meant to symbolize? I figured the empty throne was intended to represent her passing, but seeing that there are lifetime issues with it, that is obviously incorrect. Thanks again, this is all quite interesting to me

The pulvinar was a special couch set out for use by the gods and adorned with their accoutrements, during such rites as the lectisternium or supplicatio. Juno's accoutrements include a scepter, a struppus, and the peacock. Thestruppus was a band-like wreath to be wrapped around the head.

From Melville Jones – A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins:

The Empress was regarded as the earthly equivalent of Juno. That's why you see so many Juno-themed reverses on the coins of the various empresses. 

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Congratulations on joining the Faustina club! That's pretty cool that the Faustina articles influenced others.

My only photographed Faustina is this one, a generous gift from our version of Secret Santa:

[zanzi]

On 11/16/2024 at 5:23 AM, Roman Collector said:

The pulvinar was a special couch set out for use by the gods and adorned with their accoutrements, during such rites as the lectisternium or supplicatio. Juno's accoutrements include a scepter, a struppus, and the peacock. Thestruppus was a band-like wreath to be wrapped around the head.

From Melville Jones – A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins:

The Empress was regarded as the earthly equivalent of Juno. That's why you see so many Juno-themed reverses on the coins of the various empresses. 

Thanks for the explanation! The connection to Juno is interesting! 

[zanzi]

On 11/16/2024 at 10:31 AM, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

Congratulations on joining the Faustina club! That's pretty cool that the Faustina articles influenced others.

My only photographed Faustina is this one, a generous gift from our version of Secret Santa:

A wonderful, big bronze gift it was! That thing looks very nice, and with a good patina on it too. Really it is a beautiful coin