Faustina Friday – A Mother-Daughter Hybrid Denarius Useful for Dating

[Roman Collector]

Friday felicitations, fellow Faustina fanatics. I hope your upcoming weekend is a coin-filled one. Today we'll explore an interesting hybrid denarius that is in @curtislclay's collection. Even though this type is lacking from my own numophylacium, its scholarly value is such that I want to discuss it in detail. I will show a few coins from my own collection, though, while examining the coin in detail. The coin's obverse is one issued for Faustina the Younger, while the reverse is one issued for Faustina the Elder. Here is a photo of Curtis's coin.

Hybrid denarius featuring an obverse die of Faustina II paired with a reverse die of Faustina I. Photo courtesy of Harlan J. Berk.

The coin has implications for dating. As I have discussed in a previous installment of Faustina Friday, Beckmann could not assign a specific date for Faustina the Elder's denarii of this reverse type, and assigns them to "the later 150s AD."[1] I therefore assigned this reverse type of Faustina the elder to "c. 155 – 161 CE." I illustrate the reverse type below with a specimen from my own collection.

Faustina I, 138-140 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.07 g, 18.6 mm, 5h.
Rome, c. 155-161 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: CONSECRATIO, Ceres (?) standing left, raising right hand and holding short torch in left.
Refs: RIC 382b; BMCRE 467-69; RSC 165a; Strack 452; RCV 4593; CRE 86.
Notes: Cohen erroneously describes the specimen in the BnF as having a veiled bust, though Strack describes the same specimen correctly. RIC cites Cohen’s description of the bust type uncritically, which is corrected in BMCRE.

However, we can date the obverse die to a much narrower date range. As I discussed in a previous installment of Faustina Friday, coins of Faustina the Younger with the combination of the Beckmann Type 5 hairstyle and the FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL obverse legend are securely dated from Autumn 154 CE to the end of December 155 CE.[2] This coin from my collection illustrates the obverse type.

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.33 g, 17.1 mm, 1 h.
Rome, autumn 154-early 155 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL, bare-headed and draped bust right (Beckmann Type 5 hairstyle).
Rev: CONCORDIA, Concordia seated left, holding flower and resting elbow on cornucopiae set on globe under chair.
Refs: RIC 502a(3); BMCRE 1088; Cohen 54; RCV 4704; Strack 506; CRE 168.
Notes: I have also discussed the chronology of this issue elsewhere.

Therefore, because the obverse on Curtis's hybrid dates from 154-155 CE, its reverse must date to 154-55 CE as well. Allowing for the possibility that the CONSECRATIO/Ceres reverse type may have continued beyond 155 CE, we can say with near certainty that the CONSECRATIO and Ceres reverse type dates to 154-156 CE. This has implications for the dating of other coins as well.

A Hypothesis About the Dating of Other Coins of Faustina the Elder

As I have previously discussed here and here, the CONSECRATIO and Ceres reverse type was paired with obverses bearing any of three legends:

DIVA FAVSTINA
DIVA AVG FAVSTINA
DIVAE FAVSTINAE

Two other reverse types are paired with all three of these legends. In addition, a handful of reverse types are paired with both the DIVA FAVSTINA and DIVA AVG FAVSTINA legend. Coins bearing these alternate obverse legends are scarce to rare, indicating a short period of production at the Rome mint. I postulate that based upon the date of the CONSECRATIO reverse type established by Curtis's hybrid denarius, that all the other reverse types paired with the variant obverse inscriptions date to 154-156 as well. For whatever reason, the Rome mint seems to have experimented with a variety of obverse legends for the deified empress in the mid-150s.

Do you have any coins related to this hybrid? Please post comments, coins, or anything you feel is relevant!

~~~

Notes

1. Beckmann, Martin. Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces. American Numismatic Society, 2012, p. 71.

2. Clay, Curtis L. "The Supply of Bronze Coins to Britain in the Second Century." Numismatic Chronicle, vol. 149, 1989, p. 216, and personal communication, 13 September 2021.

[Roman Collector]

Update! This medium bronze in Curtis Clay's collection is apparently a mule between an obverse of Faustina the Elder and this reverse type of Faustina the Younger, used 155-156 CE.



Notice that this obverse reads DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, which was in use 140-145 CE and again in the 150s. Note that the existence of this mule is yet another bit of evidence for my hypothesis above that the variant obverse legends of Faustina the elder date from 154-156, with 155 CE being the most likely.

The obverse of Curtis' coin was apparently intended for the AETERNITAS/Pietas reverse type, the only medium bronze with a variant obverse legend.

Faustina I, 138-140 CE.
Roman Æ as or dupondius, 11.69 g, 24.4 mm, 5 h.
Rome, 155 CE.
Obv: DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AETERNITAS S C, Pietas standing left, dropping incense over altar with right hand and holding incense box in left hand.
Refs: RIC –; BMCRE –; Cohen –; Strack –; RCV –.