Antoninus Pius Sestertius RIC III Antoninus Pius 979A

Monetary and Economic Context

The sestertius served as the backbone of the everyday monetary system of the high Roman Empire, acting both as a circulating base-metal denomination and as the empire's primary unit of account in public finance, legal assessments, and private contracts. Valued at one-quarter of a silver denarius or four copper asses, the sestertius possessed substantial purchasing power in the mid-second century AD. It was capable of covering daily wages for skilled laborers, civic market purchases, and regional tax obligations. Unlike gold aurei and silver denarii, which were struck in precious metals, the sestertius was manufactured from orichalcum, a golden-toned copper-zinc alloy that the Romans valued above pure red copper. The large physical diameter and weight of the sestertius made it a preeminent medium for state communications. Imperial administrations utilized its broad surfaces to broadcast political, ideological, and dynastic themes across the provinces. Under Antoninus Pius, whose reign spanned AD 138 to 161, the currency reflected remarkable internal peace, financial stability, and continuous civic engagement. When RIC III Antoninus Pius 979A was produced in AD 157 to 158, the empire was experiencing the zenith of this prolonged era of domestic tranquility. While the regime avoided expansionist military campaigns, it maintained extensive military preparedness along the frontiers. The imagery on RIC III 979A combines traditional military motifs with civic personifications to reassure the populace that the Pax Romana rested upon military vigilance, senatorial legitimacy, and the favor of the gods.

Production Standards and Minting

Production of base-metal imperial coinage during the mid-second century AD was concentrated entirely at the imperial mint in Rome. The centralized mint, staffed by hereditary craftsmen, freedmen, and enslaved laborers under the supervision of the procurator monetae, operated in dedicated workshops (officinae) capable of striking millions of pieces annually. For sestertii of Antoninus Pius, blanks were prepared by casting round flans in open or multi-part molds, followed by edge trimming and careful weighing before striking. The alloy used for RIC III Antoninus Pius 979A was orichalcum, characterized by a declining zinc content over the course of the second century as mint authorities increasingly recycled scrap brass. Sestertius flans from this issue generally average between 24.0 and 28.0 grams in weight, with diameters typically spanning 30 to 33 millimeters, though individual specimens can deviate due to the tolerances permitted in ancient batch-weighing (al marco). Die alignment was overwhelmingly adjusted to a standard six o'clock (inverted) orientation, a hallmark of strict imperial workshop discipline in Rome. Engravers carved portrait dies in intaglio into hardened iron or bronze die blocks, demonstrating exceptional technical mastery in modeling the mature facial contours of Antoninus Pius and the detailed miniature panoply of Roma on the reverse. Striking was performed manually by striking the reverse punch with heavy sledgehammers while the hot or cold flan rested atop the obverse anvil die.

Obverse Design and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 979A presents the mature portrait of Antoninus Pius, depicted as a bare-necked bust facing right, crowned with a laurel wreath. The imperial portraiture of this period is renowned for its dignified, serene, and conservative realism. Antoninus Pius is rendered with his distinctive facial characteristics: a high forehead, straight nose, calm gaze, and a neatly trimmed, full curly beard and mustache that had become standard imperial iconography since the reign of Hadrian. The laurel wreath rests securely around the head, tied at the occiput with two ribbons (lemnisci) that drape gracefully down the back of the neck. The modeling of the hair features deep, layered curls rendered with fine punch and chisel work, conveying a sense of restrained majesty. Unlike earlier military dynasts, Antoninus Pius rarely adopted aggressive or hyper-masculinized heroic portraiture, preferring a fatherly and pious expression that mirrored his official cognomen, Pius. The unbroken legend frames the head closely along the beaded outer border, starting in the lower left field and terminating in the lower right.

Reverse Iconography

The reverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 979A features a celebrated composition of Roma, the divine personification of the Roman state and its eternal authority. Helmeted and clad in classical drapery, Roma is shown seated left upon an ornate military cuirass, a visual testament to Rome's triumph over hostile forces. Her right foot is elevated and rests firmly upon a crested helmet lying on the ground, underscoring dominion through military victory. In her extended right hand, she holds a statuette of winged Victory, who advances toward the viewer or toward Roma offering a laurel wreath or palm branch. Roma's left elbow or arm rests comfortably upon a parazonium, the short triangular ceremonial sword associated with virtue and imperial command. Behind her seat rests an upright oval shield, adorned with a central boss. In the lower fields to the left and right of the seated figure, the large letters S and C (Senatus Consulto) are struck prominently, indicating that the bronze denomination was issued by authority of the Senate in formal collaboration with the princeps. This reverse motif drew heavily upon Augustan and Flavian sculptural prototypes, reiterating that the military triumphs of the empire ultimately served to establish and defend the sacred majesty of Roma.

Inscriptions and Epigraphy

The legends on RIC III Antoninus Pius 979A provide precise chronological and constitutional data regarding the emperor's reign. The obverse inscription reads ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P IMP II. This legend breaks down into standard imperial elements: ANTONINVS represents the emperor's adopted imperial name; AVG abbreviates Augustus, the sacred title of the head of state; PIVS denotes his official surname awarded by the Senate for familial and religious devotion; P P abbreviates Pater Patriae (Father of the Fatherland); and IMP II denotes his second imperatorial acclamation. This second acclamation, originally awarded in AD 142 following the successful suppression of the Brigantes and construction of the Antonine Wall in Britain, was retained on select coin legends late in the reign to assert the princeps's imperium. The reverse legend reads TR POT XXI COS IIII, supplemented by S C in the fields. TR POT XXI indicates the twenty-first annual renewal of his tribunician power (Tribunicia Potestate XXI), which firmly fixes the minting of this type to the calendar period between late AD 157 and late AD 158. COS IIII records his fourth consulship, assumed on January 1, AD 145, which remained his final consulship throughout his life. The letters S C (Senatus Consulto, 'by decree of the Senate') reaffirm the traditional constitutional role of the senatorial order in sanctioning aes coinage.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard classification established in The Roman Imperial Coinage (Volume III by Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham), this type is catalogued as RIC III 979A, distinguishing it within the expansive sestertius series produced for Antoninus Pius. It is closely related to RIC III 979, differing in specific obverse legend formulations and minor reverse attributes such as the presence or absence of the parazonium, shield placement, or the precise posture of Roma. Chronologically, the type is anchored securely to AD 157 to 158 by the tribunician date TR POT XXI. This issue belongs to the fourth and final principal phase of the emperor's coinage, as categorized by Wolfgang Szaivert in his specialized study of the coinage of Antoninus Pius (MIR 18). Szaivert identifies the TR POT XXI emission as an orderly, multi-officina issue characterized by standard portraiture and mature titulature. The Roma seated on cuirass type formed part of an ongoing programmatic cycle of bronze types issued during the 150s AD that balanced civic personifications like Annona, Pietas, and Salus with majestic emblems of imperial power like Roma and Virtus. While RIC III 979A constitutes a distinct catalogue entity, minor variations in die engraving occur, including differences in the folds of Roma's drapery, the angle of the parazonium, and the ornamentation of the cuirass.

Circulation, Wear, and Hoard Evidence

As a primary high-denomination base-metal coin, RIC III Antoninus Pius 979A circulated extensively throughout the western provinces of the empire, including Italia, Gaul, Hispania, Britain, and the Danubian frontier. In these regions, bronze sestertii remained in continuous commercial use for decades. Due to the high intrinsic value of the orichalcum alloy and the persistent shortage of newly minted aes in distant provinces, second-century sestertii often circulated until they were worn completely smooth. Consequently, surviving specimens of RIC III 979A frequently exhibit considerable friction, corrosion, and edge flattening consistent with prolonged circulation into the early third century. Hoard evidence from France, Germany, and Britain indicates that sestertii of Antoninus Pius formed a substantial portion of circulating base-metal hoards buried during the reigns of Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and the Severan dynasty. By the middle of the third century, rampant inflation, currency debasement, and the formal introduction of the double sestertius under Decius and Postumus led to the mass retirement, melting, and reminting of earlier orichalcum coinages, leaving types such as RIC III 979A preserved primarily through domestic hoard deposits and lost site finds.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. pp. 338-340
2. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. III: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 147, no. 979A
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC III Antoninus Pius 979A. ric.3.ant.979A
4. Die Münzprägung des Kaisers Antoninus Pius (Moneta Imperii Romani 18). MIR 18, nos. 1010-1014