Faustina I Silver Denarius RIC III Antoninus Pius 395Ca

Monetary Context and Imperial Policy

The reign of Antoninus Pius represented a period of fiscal conservatism and administrative continuity, during which the silver denarius served as the backbone of everyday urban commerce, military remuneration, and taxation across the Roman Empire. When Faustina the Elder died between October and November of AD 140, the emperor and the Roman Senate responded with an unprecedented array of posthumous honors, including formal consecration (consecratio), the dedication of a temple in the Roman Forum, and an immense series of commemorative coinages. Denarius type RIC III Antoninus Pius 395Ca belongs to the inaugural phase of this divine commemorative program, produced in AD 141 to broadcast the empress's elevation to the imperial pantheon. Consecration issues under the Antonines served not merely as emotional tributes but as vital political instruments that validated the pietas of the reigning princeps and reaffirmed the dynastic legitimacy of the regime. The issue adhered to the prevailing mid-second-century denarius standard established during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian, maintaining a theoretical weight between 3.15 and 3.40 grams and an intrinsic silver content fluctuating between roughly 80 and 85 percent fineness, striking a durable balance between state expenditure and public monetary trust.

Production and Minting at Rome

All specimens of RIC III Antoninus Pius 395Ca were struck exclusively at the primary imperial mint in the capital city of Rome. The Rome mint was an organized administrative apparatus operating multiple officinae capable of producing millions of uniform silver flans annually. Production involved heating precisely weighed blanks of cast silver alloy and striking them between hand-cut hardened iron or bronze dies. The die cutters at Rome during this period achieved a high level of plastic realism and stylistic harmony, characterizing Faustina's features with soft portraiture and rendering complex drapery folds and miniature accessories on the reverse with notable clarity. Although individual die pairs inevitably display minute variations in portrait angle, relief depth, and letter spacing, the iconography of this catalogue type remained rigorously controlled. Surviving specimens typically exhibit flan diameters ranging from 17 to 19 millimeters, with axis alignments predominantly fixed at approximately twelve o'clock or six o'clock, reflecting the regularized mechanical conventions maintained by the moneyers and strike teams in Rome.

Obverse Portraiture and Style

The obverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 395Ca features the draped bust of the deified Faustina the Elder facing right. The treatment of the hair represents an essential diagnostic element for the classification of her coin types. In this type, the hair is parted and arranged into soft, elaborately waved lateral horizontal tiers or loops along the contours of the cranium before being drawn up into an intricate woven chignon or braided tower coiled high upon the crown. Her drapery covers the neck and shoulders in tidy, naturalistic folds secured at the shoulder. Unlike some later consecration series that add a veil or a divine stephane to symbolize direct celestial transition, this early issue maintains an unadorned, noble coiffure that emphasizes the human grace of the late Augusta at the moment of her transition to divinity. The stylistic execution of the facial features captures a calm, idealized countenance with a straight nasal bridge, gently contoured cheeks, and finely engraved eyes, projecting serenity and imperial dignity.

Reverse Iconography: Pietas and Ritual

The reverse composition of this denarius presents the personification of Pietas, fully draped and veiled, standing in three-quarters profile facing left. In her lowered right hand, she sprinkles grains of incense taken from a box held in her left hand onto a slender, lighted candelabrum or small portable incense burner (thymiaterion) standing before her feet. Pietas served as a central virtue in the ideological messaging of Antoninus Pius, whose very cognomen derived from his profound filial, familial, and religious devotion. By portraying Pietas engaged in the pious act of burning incense, the reverse visually evokes the funerary cult and ongoing temple rites enacted in honor of Diva Faustina in Rome. The delicate vessel or candelabrum represents sacred flame, while the incense box (acerra) signifies sacred sacrifice offered to the immortal gods on behalf of the deified empress. The veiling of Pietas reinforces the ritual purity required in solemn Roman religious ceremonies, anchoring the empress's memory in traditional Roman piety.

Inscriptional Analysis and Epigraphy

The epigraphic program of RIC III Antoninus Pius 395Ca is concise, balanced, and direct. The obverse bears the continuous circumferential legend DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, beginning at the lower left and reading upward clockwise. The omission of the prefix DIVA before AVG and its direct association with FAVSTINA designates the subject explicitly as the Divine Augusta Faustina. This formula represents the earlier form of her posthumous titulature, which was subsequently simplified or expanded in later issues into DIVA FAVSTINA or DIVA AVGVSTA FAVSTINA. On the reverse, the legend PIETAS AVG (Pietas Augusti or Pietas Augusta) is arranged symmetrically in the outer fields, flanking the standing figure. The title proclaims either the imperial virtue of piety personified through the emperor's care for his deceased wife or the innate piety attributed to the late Augusta herself. The lettering is executed in classic Roman imperial capitals characterized by well-defined serifs, uniform stroke weight, and clear letter spacing, reflecting the premier standards of Rome's die-engraving workshops.

Typology and Chronological Placement

Within Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham's Roman Imperial Coinage classification, number 395 encompasses multiple subtypes distinguished primarily by obverse bust drapery and hair styling. Subtype 395Ca specifically denotes the variety presenting a draped bust right with hair gathered into a coiled arrangement on top of the head, combined with the reverse legend PIETAS AVG and Pietas dropping incense on a candelabrum. Paul L. Strack and Martin Beckmann place the production of the DIVA AVG FAVSTINA denarii in the immediate aftermath of Faustina's death in late AD 140 and early AD 141, preceding the broader DIVA FAVSTINA series that dominated the later 140s and 150s AD. Die-link studies and metallurgical assessments demonstrate that issues displaying the candelabrum reverse were among the earliest struck following the senatorial decree of deification. As the consecration coinage developed over subsequent years, new reverse types depicting Aeternitas, Ceres, and the newly built temple gradually superseded the initial Pietas sacrifice motifs.

Circulation and Archaeological Evidence

Denarii of Diva Faustina, including RIC III Antoninus Pius 395Ca, enjoyed an extensive and prolonged lifespan in circulation across the Roman Empire. Because the silver issues of Antoninus Pius possessed a consistent silver content comparable to those of Trajan and Hadrian, they were readily accepted and widely hoarded alongside earlier second-century denarii. The Pietas types from AD 141 circulated not only within Italy and the Mediterranean heartland but also along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and across Roman Britain, where military payrolls drove substantial silver movement. Archaeological hoard data, such as the thousands of Antonine denarii recorded in the Reka Devnia hoard in Bulgaria and numerous British finds catalogued in the Portable Antiquities Scheme, demonstrate that consecration denarii of Faustina remained in active use well into the third century AD. Over decades of commercial circulation, many specimens experienced substantial surface wear before being withdrawn during the currency debasements of the Severan dynasty and the mid-third-century crisis.

References

1. Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces. pp. 22-38
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. pp. 52-54, nos. 327-331
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC III Antoninus Pius 395Ca. ric.3.ant.395Ca
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. III: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 73, no. 395
5. Untersuchungen zur romischen Reichspragung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil III: Die Reichspragung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius. nos. 401-404