Faustina Friday – A Mother-Daughter Mule Establishing a Date for Faustina the Elder's DIVA AVG FAVSTINA Issues

[Roman Collector]

Friday felicitations, fellow Faustina fanatics. I hope this weekend finds you enjoying your collections. In this week's installment, we will examine an interesting mint error that combines the obverse of a coin of Faustina the Elder with a reverse type intended for the medium bronze issues of her daughter, Faustina the Younger. I believe the coin to be unique.

Faustina I, 138-140 CE.
Roman orichalcum dupondius, 12.55 g, 23.7 mm, 12 h.
Rome, late 155 - early 156 CE.
Obv: DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: IVNO S C, Juno seated left, holding statuette of the Three Graces and scepter; peacock at feet.
Refs: RIC –; BMCRE –; Cohen –; Strack –; RCV –.
Notes: Ex-Curtis L. Clay.

Notes on the Obverse

Note that the obverse inscription reads DIVA AVG FAVSTINA and not DIVA AVGVSTA FAVSTINA or DIVA FAVSTINA. Both Mattingly and Strack[1] believed that the obverse inscription with the title Augusta was confined to the early issues for Diva Faustina. Specifically, Mattingly dates the coinage bearing the first inscription to "A.D. 141 and immediately afterwards."[2] He is less specific in his dating of the coinage bearing the second title but states that the title Augusta was no longer in use after 147 CE, "because that title has passed on to her daughter."[3] However, Martin Beckmann, in the course of his die-linkage study of the aurei of Faustina the Elder, determined that the movement of AVGVSTA from obverse to the reverse of her coinage was connected to Faustina the Younger's "marriage to the young Caesar Marcus Aurelius in 145."[4]

Interestingly, in the course of his die-linkage study of the aurei of Faustina I, Beckmann also discovered a very unexpected development in the obverse legend at the very end of one of the die-chains: the obverse inscription DIVA AVG FAVSTINA reappears on two dies in the chain. In addition, he discovered three other obverse dies with the same inscription and bust style, all linked together, in a separate group outside the main die-link chain. Beckmann dates these obverse dies to "the later 150s AD."[5] Beckmann also notes the existence of denarii with this obverse inscription,[6] and I have previously discussed the silver and bronze issues with the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA inscription.

However, prior to the discovery of a muled denarius, which provided only indirect evidence, neither Beckmann nor I were able to narrow down the date for the coins of Faustina the Elder featuring the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend beyond c. 155-161 CE, though some stylistic parallels between the AETERNITAS/Pietas issue with the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend and a type with the DIVA FAVSTINA legend issued exclusively for use in Britain suggested a date of 153-155 CE. I have discussed this previously elsewhere.

The other reverse types bearing the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA obverse inscription that were struck in the medium bronze denominations include the AETERNITAS/Aeternitas seated l., holding phoenix on globe and scepter type (BMC 1415A n.), the AETERNITAS/Pietas standing l., sacrificing over altar and holding box of incense type (RIC 1192B), and the PIET AVG/altar enclosure type (RIC 1191B). All the medium bronzes with the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend are quite scarce and this suggests a short period of production by the mint.

Notes on the Reverse

This reverse type is unique to the medium bronze denominations issued for Faustina the Younger. Although this type was paired with both the FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL and FAVSTINA AVGVSTA AVG PII F obverse inscriptions, it was issued for only a short time and can be securely dated to late 155 to early 156 CE. I have previously discussed this reverse type. Therefore, this mule must date to late 155 to early 156 CE as well.

The Implications of this Mule for Dating the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA Types

The mule described above can be securely dated to late 155 to early 156 CE. The AETERNITAS/Pietas sacrificing type likely dates to 153-155 CE. Lastly, the aforementioned muled denarius implies a date of production for the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA type of 154-156 CE. All the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA medium bronzes are scarce to rare, indicating a short period of production. Therefore, it is nearly certain that all of them were produced c. 155 CE, give or take a year or so. Therefore, we can narrow down the date range for production of the coins with the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend from Beckmann’s vague, "the later 150s" to 154-156.

As always, feel free to post comments, coins, and questions!

Notes

1. Strack, Paul L., Untersuchungen zur Römischen Reichsprägung des Zweiten Jahrhunderts, vol. 3, Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius. Stuttgart 1937.

2. Mattingly, Harold, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. Introduction, indexes and plates. London, BMP, 1968, p. 42.

3. Mattingly, op. cit., p. lxi.

4. Beckmann, Martin. Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces. American Numismatic Society, 2012, p. 51.

5. Beckmann, op. cit., p. 71 and Die Charts 2 and 7.

6. Beckmann, op. cit., p. 71.