Diva Faustina Sestertius, RIC III Antoninus Pius 1124

Monetary and Denominational Context

During the middle Antonine period, the monetary system established under the Augustan reforms continued to function with remarkable stability, anchored by the gold aureus, the silver denarius, and a hierarchy of aes denominations composed of orichalcum (brass) and pure copper. Within this framework, the sestertius occupied a central economic role as the primary large-denomination base-metal coin, tariffed at four copper asses, two brass dupondii, or one-fourth of a silver denarius. The sestertius was also the traditional unit of account in Roman public accounting, private estates, tax registers, and imperial gift disbursements (congiaria). Because of its substantial physical diameter and broad surface area, the sestertius was deliberately utilized by the imperial regime as an expansive canvas for state messaging. Under Antoninus Pius, who succeeded Hadrian in AD 138, the imperial administration rarely celebrated foreign military conquests, focusing instead on internal harmony, constitutional continuity, religious traditionalism, and dynastic devotion. The sudden passing of Faustina the Elder in late AD 140 provided an immediate occasion for unprecedented monumental commemoration. Following her formal consecration by the Senate, large volumes of posthumous bronze were commissioned to project her elevated status. RIC III Antoninus Pius 1124 belongs to this extensive wave of commemorative production, integrating the deceased empress into the permanent pantheon of Roman state deities.

Production Technology and Mint Operation

All major imperial bronze denominations of the Antonine principate, including RIC III Antoninus Pius 1124, were produced exclusively by the central imperial mint at Rome (Moneta Augusti). The technological process began with the casting of heavy, disc-shaped flans made of orichalcum, a copper-zinc alloy known for its bright golden-yellow sheen when freshly struck. Metallurgical analyses of mid-second-century brass sestertii indicate a declining zinc content compared to the early Julio-Claudian era, but the alloy maintained sufficient distinction from the reddish copper used for asses. Flans were cast in open or bivalve moulds and frequently subjected to lathe turning or edge smoothing to regularize the circular perimeter and eliminate casting runners. Central dimples or indentation marks, frequently visible on Antonine bronzes, bear witness to the mechanical clamping devices used during this blank preparation process. Once softened by preheating, the prepared blank was positioned between hand-carved intaglio dies, with the lower die fixed into an anvil and the upper reverse die mounted into a handheld punch. The striking was executed by team strikes using heavy iron hammers, transferring the fine relief of Faustina's portrait and Vesta's delicate drapery onto the broad planchet. Alignment of the dies was predominantly axial, exhibiting regular twelve o'clock or six o'clock die orientations typical of the Rome mint in this period.

Obverse Iconography and Design Details

The obverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 1124 presents a right-facing, draped bust of the deified Empress Faustina the Elder. The portrait is renowned in Roman imperial iconography for its distinctive, aristocratic coiffure, which had set fashion across the Mediterranean world during her life and became an immortalized badge of her identity after death. Her hair is rendered in delicate, regular waves parted at the front and sides, swept horizontally across the head in tiered braids, drawn backward from the temples, and gathered into a tall, formal woven coil perched precisely at the crown. The bust truncation is neatly delineated, with classical drapery gathered at the shoulder and falling in soft folds across the lower neck and chest. Surviving dies demonstrate subtle stylistic variability in the treatment of the hair bands, the fullness of the cheek, and the angle of the truncation, reflecting the work of several senior engravers within the officinae of the Rome mint. Unlike certain subsequent issues of the posthumous series that incorporate a consecration veil, a stephane, or pearls woven through the tresses, this issue adheres to the classic, unadorned private hairstyle elevated to sacred monumental status.

Reverse Iconography and Attributes

The reverse design features Vesta, the ancient Roman virgin goddess of the hearth, standing upright facing left. She is clothed in long, flowing stola and palla, garments befitting her sacred chastity and ancient position in Roman religion. In her extended right hand, Vesta holds the palladium, a diminutive archaic figure of Minerva bearing a spear and shield. In her left hand, held vertically at her side, she supports a long, slender sceptre resting on the groundline. The field around her is inscribed with the bold capital letters S and C placed respectively to her left and right. The incorporation of Vesta and the palladium carries deep ideological weight. Vesta was the guarantor of Rome's eternal endurance (Aeternitas), while the palladium was the ancestral talisman reportedly brought from Troy by Aeneas and guarded within the inner sanctuary of the Temple of Vesta in the Forum. By aligning the deified Faustina with Vesta, the imperial mint drew a deliberate parallel between the holy matriarch of the Roman state religion and the deified empress, whose virtue and civic devotion had protected the empire. The long sceptre denotes sovereign majesty, confirming Vesta's active divine oversight of the state and the imperial family.

Inscriptions and Epigraphic Analysis

The epigraphy of RIC III Antoninus Pius 1124 is characterised by dignified brevity, avoiding the lengthy imperial titulature typical of living rulers. The obverse legend reads DIVA FAVSTINA in an unbroken clockwise arc starting from the lower left. The title Diva formally designates Faustina as a consecrated goddess, voted apotheosis by the Roman Senate at the petition of Antoninus Pius. This concise two-word formula is recognized by numismatists as the earliest obverse legend adopted for the posthumous series, preceding the later, more extensive DIVA AVGVSTA FAVSTINA forms. The reverse inscription is equally succinct, reading AVGVSTA in the upper field or flanking the divine figure, complemented by the letters S C in the primary field. The title Augusta, while originally an imperial honour bestowed upon empresses in life, serves here as an absolute divine epithet identifying the goddess Vesta while recalling the royal dignity of Faustina. The formula S C, an abbreviation for Senatus Consulto ('By decree of the Senate'), was a mandatory constitutional feature of imperial base-metal coinage struck at Rome. It reaffirmed that the striking of the heavy brass denomination, as well as the deification of the empress itself, carried the solemn institutional sanction of the Roman senatorial order.

Typology and Chronological Placement

In the standard classification scheme of Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham in The Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC), this type is catalogued as RIC III Antoninus Pius 1124. In the detailed chronological reconstruction established by Martin Beckmann through extensive die-link analysis of Faustina's posthumous coinage, the simple DIVA FAVSTINA obverse combined with the AVGVSTA reverse belongs to the foundational phase of the consecration issues, securely dated to AD 141, the year immediately following Faustina's death in autumn of AD 140. While the posthumous coinage of Diva Faustina continued to be struck in extraordinary quantities across the remaining two decades of Antoninus Pius's reign, the specific pairing found on RIC III Antoninus Pius 1124 distinguishes itself from later emissions. Later issues expanded the reverse repertoire to include Ceres, Aeternitas, and Pietas, frequently accompanied by more elaborate reverse legends such as CONSECRATIO, AETERNITAS, or PVELLAE FAVSTINIANAE. The early AD 141 issues are characterized by compact letterforms, fine naturalistic portrait modeling, and direct allegorical associations between the deceased Augusta and traditional Roman deities.

Circulation, Hoarding, and Physical Evidence

As a principal denomination in daily transactions, the sestertius experienced vigorous, prolonged circulation throughout the Roman Empire. Archaeological evidence from coin hoards, urban excavations, and river deposits across Italy, Gaul, Britain, the Rhine-Danube frontier, and North Africa demonstrates that Antonine sestertii remained active in circulation well into the third century AD. Due to the high standard of orichalcum metal and the enduring reliability of the Antonine monetary standard, coins of Faustina the Elder were rarely withdrawn prematurely from circulation. Decades of handling and transactional friction typically reduced the high relief of the empress's woven hair and Vesta's sceptre, resulting in smooth, softened surfaces on surviving archaeological finds. Weight standards for this type generally adhere to the Antonine sestertius norm, centering around twenty-four to twenty-eight grams with diameters spanning thirty to thirty-four millimetres, though striking variance and severe physical wear create wider distributions across archaeological assemblages. When third-century monetary inflation led to the debasement of the silver radiate and reduced bronze weights, worn second-century sestertii such as RIC III Antoninus Pius 1124 continued to change hands alongside newer, smaller colonial and imperial tokens, maintaining purchasing power until the monetary reforms of Aurelian and Diocletian.

References

1. Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces. Numismatic Studies 26, American Numismatic Society, 2012
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. Introduction and Faustina I Catalogue
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC III Antoninus Pius 1124. ric.3.ant.1124
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. III: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 162, no. 1124