Faustina Friday – A Lifetime CONCORDIA AVG Medium Bronze with a Left-Facing Bust

[Roman Collector]

Friday felicitations, fellow Faustina fanatics! I hope you have a restful and coin-filled weekend.

Although I have already discussed this reverse type in depth, I wanted to dive deeper into what we can learn from studying the varieties of the type. We're going to do some flyspecking!



I recently acquired this medium bronze from Harlan J Berk that had been in @curtislclay's collection.

Faustina I 138-140 CE.
Roman Æ as or dupondius, 15.09 g, 26.3 mm, 5 h.
Rome, 1 March 139-140 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII P P, bare-headed and draped bust, left.
Rev: CONCORDIA AVG S C, Concordia standing left, resting left arm on column, holding patera and double cornucopiae.
Refs: RIC –; BMCRE –; Cohen –; Strack –; RCV –.
Notes: Cf. RIC 1089 (right-facing bust). Ex- Curtis L. Clay collection, ex- CNG eAuction 505, lot 470, 1 December 2021.

A variety with a left-facing bust is not listed in the standard references: Cohen, RIC, Strack, BMCRE, or Sear. In fact, no lifetime bronzes of Faustina the Elder with left-facing busts of any reverse type are listed in these references. A coin featuring a left-facing bust first appeared on the market in 1957 in Münzen & Medaillen AG (Bern) Auction 17, lot 473.




The lot description notes it is a variante inédite, a new variant. The coin was sold eleven years later, again through Münzen & Medaillen AG (Auction 38, lot 449, December 1968.




The German language lot description notes it is not listed in BMC, Cohen or Strack and describes the coin as a Unikale Variante, a unique variant.

My coin apparently surfaced in the twenty-first century and appears in the CNG auction without provenance. It was struck from the same die-pair as the earlier-described M&M specimen. I have performed a comprehensive search of online databases and have identified no other examples of this variant. It seems there are only two known specimens.

Dating the CONCORDIA AVG Reverse Type

All of the bronzes of this reverse type are paired with obverses that read FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII P P and must have been produced after Antoninus Pius received the title of Pater Patriae on 1 March 139 CE.[1] Although Faustina's obverse titulature on the gold and silver coinage changes to FAVSTINA AVGVSTA with the advent of the new year, 140 CE, the bronze coinage continued to  use the FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII P P obverse inscription until her death in October 140.[2] The CONCORDIA AVG reverse type appears on all three issues of the empress throughout her lifetime and I am thus unable to establish a terminus ante quem for the type.

The Left-Facing Variety of the CONCORDIA AVG, Concordia Standing Type was Issued Roughly Contemporaneously with the Right-Facing Variety

A reverse die match between the two obverse varieties indicates they were in simultaneous production, which is not at all inconsistent with the practices seen in the Rome mint after the empress's death, as established by Beckmann's die studies of the aurei and sestertii of Diva Faustina. These die studies demonstrate the occasional use of left-facing obverse dies, always in conjunction with simultaneous usage of right-facing obverse dies for coins bearing the same reverse design.

Medium bronze with the typical right-facing bust struck with the same reverse die as the two specimens struck with the left-facing obverse die. Ibercoin, Online Auction 70, lot 363, 14 July 2022.

The CONCORDIA AVG, Concordia Standing Type was Issued Roughly Contemporaneously with the IVNONI REGINAE Type

We may reasonably assume that the medium bronze denominations for Faustina the Elder were issued in conjunction with the sestertii of the same reverse type. Three sestertii demonstrate the contemporaneous mintage of the CONCORDIA AVG, Concordia standing type and the IVNONI REGINAE type.

One variant sestertius obverse die uses an expanded obverse legend for the empress, FAVSTINA AVGVSTA ANTONINI AVG PII P P instead of the usual FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII P P inscription. This die was used to strike coins of the CONCORDIA AVG type and the IVNONI REGINAE type.

Sestertius of the CONCORDIA AVG reverse type with an expanded obverse inscription reading FAVSTINA AVGVSTA ANTONINI AVG PII P P (Strack 1228, citing a specimen in Berlin; unlisted in RIC or Cohen). This appears to have been produced with a single variant obverse die. Davisson’s Ltd., E-Auction 35, lot 53, 10 June 2020.

Sestertius of the IVNONI REGINAE type struck with the same obverse die as the CONCORDIA AVG type shown above. Bibliothèque Nationale De France, Gauthier-Dussart, Pl. 85, no 1419.[3]

A sestertius with the usual FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII P P obverse legend features the CONCORDIA AVG reverse type struck over a sestertius of the IVNONI REGINAE type, demonstrating simultaneous production of the two reverse types.

Sestertius demonstrating overstriking of a IVNONI REGINAE reverse by a CONCORDIA AVG die (IVNO is clearly visible on the reverse). Triskeles Sale 30, lot 242, 6 December 2019.

All together, these specimens demonstrate the simultaneous production of Faustina the Elder's CONCORDIA AVG and IVNONI REGINAE reverse types. This may provide a useful starting point for anyone who might venture to do a die-linkage study of the lifetime sestertii of Faustina the Elder.

Do you have any CONCORDIA AVG coins of Faustina the Elder? Let’s see them! As always, feel free to post comments, coins, or anything you feel is relevant.

~~~

Notes:

1. 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. xxxii, n. 3.

2. Fasti Ostienses (tablet O, lines 11-15), quoted and transl. by Martin Beckmann. The texts are damaged and both dating formulas are corrupted; therefore, the precise days cannot be recovered. See Beckmann, Martin. Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces. American Numismatic Society, 2012, p.22.

3. Gauthier-Dussart, Roxane, et al. "Entre Rome et Alexandrie: Le Monnayage d'antonin Le Pieux (138-161), Idéologie Du Règne et Adaptations Locales." l'Université de Montréal, 2017.

Edited 1 hour ago by Roman Collector
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[JAZ Numismatics]

Pretty cool to have one of only two examples of the left-facing bust. I wonder if right-facing busts were made by right-handed engravers and left-facing by left-handed. It would explain the scarcity of left-facing busts, as most people are right-handed. Or is that a silly idea?

[Roman Collector]

56 minutes ago, JAZ Numismatics said:

Pretty cool to have one of only two examples of the left-facing bust. I wonder if right-facing busts were made by right-handed engravers and left-facing by left-handed. It would explain the scarcity of left-facing busts, as most people are right-handed. Or is that a silly idea?

Not silly. I have wondered that myself. 

[CPK]

1 hour ago, JAZ Numismatics said:

Pretty cool to have one of only two examples of the left-facing bust. I wonder if right-facing busts were made by right-handed engravers and left-facing by left-handed. It would explain the scarcity of left-facing busts, as most people are right-handed. Or is that a silly idea?

I've also wondered why left-facing busts on Roman Imperial coins are so often scarce. Your idea is an interesting one, especially since the appearance of left-facing busts on the coinage seems to be completely random.

@Roman Collector, thanks for another interesting article, and congrats on adding such a rarity to your collection!