Faustina the Elder Silver Denarius RIC III Antoninus Pius 363

Monetary Context and Denominational Role

During the mid-second century AD, the silver denarius served as the core accounting unit and transactional backbone of the Roman monetary economy. While bronze sestertii and middle bronzes sustained localized everyday market commerce and gold aurei fulfilled large administrative or military transfers, denarii carried the bulk of intermediate urban exchange, provincial taxation, state expenditures, and civic banking. Under Antoninus Pius, the imperial monetary system experienced considerable administrative and metallurgical stability. The denarius maintained a nominal weight standard calibrated to approximately one ninety-sixth of a Roman pound, yielding an intended weight around 3.25 to 3.40 grams, with individual specimens typically spanning 2.90 to 3.50 grams due to contemporary minting tolerances. Its silver fineness hovered consistently between seventy-eight and eighty-two percent, continuing the standard maintained since the monetary reforms of Trajan. The death of Annia Galeria Faustina, known to history as Faustina the Elder, in late AD 140 or early AD 141 initiated one of the most prolific commemorative coinages in Roman history. Following the Senate's formal consecration of the empress as Diva Faustina, the imperial administration at Rome undertook a colossal output of consecration silver. RIC III Antoninus Pius 363 fits precisely into this commemorative monetary context. Unlike short-lived funerary issues of earlier dynasties, the Antonine mint produced vast quantities of denarii bearing Faustina's deified titles over multiple years. These denarii were not presentation medallions or restricted donor gifts; they were fully tariffed circulating coin issues injected directly into imperial spending channels, paying soldiers, civil administrators, and public building contractors while visually affirming the enduring divine stature of the imperial house.

Production Technology and Mint Organization

RIC III Antoninus Pius 363 was produced entirely at the imperial mint of Rome, which held an effective monopoly over regular silver denarius production for the Western and Central Roman Empire during this epoch. The Rome mint operated as a highly disciplined bureaucratic and artisanal establishment organized into distinct workshops, or officinae, operating under the oversight of imperial procurators and freedmen administrators. Although Antonine silver issues do not display explicit officina marks, the internal division of labor ensured rigorous control over metal preparation, flan weighing, die engraving, and striking. Production involved cast silver flans prepared from carefully alloyed molten silver. Blanks were softened by annealing and placed between hand-cut intaglio bronze or iron dies. The obverse die, carrying the portrait bust of the deified empress, was customarily sunk into an anvil block to withstand repeated hammer impacts, while the reverse die was set into a handheld punch struck from above with a heavy mallet. The resulting flans usually display slightly irregular, rounded contours with diameters ranging between 17 and 19 millimeters. Die axes for this issue cluster strongly around the conventional Roman six o'clock and twelve o'clock alignments, reflecting standard workshop striking procedures. The vast volume of Faustina's posthumous silver necessitated the employment of multiple engravers, resulting in subtle stylistic nuances in portraiture modeling and lettering across individual die pairings while preserving uniform compositional typologies.

Obverse Typology and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 363 presents a right-facing, draped bust of the deified Faustina the Elder. Her portrait represents a masterclass of Antonine classical realism blended with idealizing divine elevation. Her facial features are rendered with serene dignity, characterized by a smooth brow, straight classical nose, and softly modelled lips, eschewing the dramatic emotionalism of earlier Hellenistic art in favor of noble tranquility. The drapery wraps gracefully across her shoulder and bust in naturalistic folds, terminating near the lower truncation. The most distinctive element of the obverse is Faustina's elaborate coiffure, which set a prominent stylistic precedent for Roman aristocratic fashion across the middle of the second century AD. The hair is parted neatly along the forehead, gathered into fine horizontal waves and undulating loops that sweep horizontally across the sides of the head, and drawn upwards to terminate in a complex braided coil pinned securely atop the crown. On certain dies, tiny strands or delicate tendrils escape near the nape of the neck or along the temple, demonstrating the technical skill of Rome's master engravers. The absence of a veil on this specific obverse variety emphasizes her living beauty and eternal youth, contrasting with veiled consecration variants that highlight funerary mourning.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 363 depicts a draped female divinity seated facing right upon a high-backed seat or curule-style chair. The figure rests her right arm casually along the backrest of the seat while holding a long transverse sceptre in her left hand, which extends diagonally across her body. The goddess is veiled, with drapery cascading around her torso and legs in carefully executed folds. In foundational numismatic literature, notably Harold Mattingly's descriptions in the Roman Imperial Coinage and the British Museum catalogues, this figure is catalogued as Juno, though affinities with Ceres or Pietas have occasionally been discussed by twentieth-century scholars. Within imperial Roman iconography, Juno symbolized matrimonial fidelity, queenly sovereignty, and the divine protectress of women, making her the natural celestial patroness of the Roman empress. Depicting the goddess enthroned in serene repose conveyed enduring cosmic peace, domestic harmony, and celestial status. The long sceptre denotes imperial and divine majesty, while the act of leaning comfortably on the chair back signals security and permanence. By associating the deceased empress with an enthroned, veiled Olympian queen, the reverse iconographically completed the process of apotheosis, intimating that Diva Faustina now enjoyed perpetual heavenly repose alongside the supreme deities of the Roman state pantheon.

Epigraphy and Legends

The epigraphic program of RIC III Antoninus Pius 363 is concise, classical, and laden with ideological weight. The obverse carries the uninterrupted Latin inscription DIVA FAVSTINA, struck along the outer border reading outwards or clockwise from the lower left. The word DIVA explicitly denotes her consecration, formally passed by the Roman Senate at Antoninus Pius's request. It confirms that the empress had shed her mortal existence and entered the ranks of state deities, receiving divine honors, sacred altars, and public priestesses. The reverse bears the single word AVGVSTA, positioned neatly across the upper and right fields around the seated divinity. Unlike contemporary issues featuring elaborate imperial titulature detailing consular terms, tribunician power, or imperatorial acclamations, posthumous commemorative coinages frequently utilized minimalistic legends. The title AVGVSTA encapsulates the supreme dignity bestowed upon Roman empresses since Livia. In this context, it operates simultaneously as an honorific for the late empress and as an epithet honoring the divine patroness Juno Augusta. The epigraphy exhibits neat, square Roman lettering typical of the Rome mint in the early 140s AD, executed with clean serifs and balanced spacing suited to the compact circular field of a silver denarius.

Typology, Chronology, and Diagnostic Variations

Catalogued systematically as RIC III Antoninus Pius 363 and paralleled in the British Museum collection under BMC 430, this issue occupies a well-defined niche within the vast series of consecration coinage for Faustina the Elder. While the Senate consecrated Faustina in late AD 140 or early AD 141, numismatic research by Paul Strack and Harold Mattingly demonstrates that Diva Faustina issues with the reverse legend AVGVSTA belong to the core group of commemorative strikings initiated around AD 141 and sustained across the early to mid-140s AD. RIC 363 must be distinguished from neighboring issues sharing similar legends or attributes. A notable variant, RIC III 362, features a similar seated figure facing left rather than right, while RIC III 361 presents Juno standing holding a patera and sceptre. Other issues within the AVGVSTA series depict Ceres standing holding grain ears and torches, or seated on a cista mystica. The diagnostic hallmark of RIC 363 rests specifically on the combination of an unveiled, draped bust of Diva Faustina facing right on the obverse, paired with the veiled goddess seated right resting her arm on the seat back and holding a transverse sceptre on the reverse. Slight die variations exist in the precise curvature of the sceptre, the detailed ornamentation of the chair legs, and the thickness of the empress's topknot, but the fundamental iconographic composition remains remarkably stable across all securely attested specimens.

Circulation, Hoard Contexts, and Survival

Upon its release into circulation from the Rome mint, RIC III Antoninus Pius 363 entered a vast, empire-wide monetary stream. Denarii of Diva Faustina were minted in immense quantities, and hoard evidence demonstrates that they circulated extensively not only in Italia and the Western provinces of Gaul, Britannia, and Hispania, but also along the Rhine-Danube military frontiers and into the Greek-speaking East. Because the Antonine silver standard remained trustworthy for several decades, Faustina's denarii enjoyed exceptional longevity in daily commerce. Hoard analyses, such as those compiled in major British, European, and Balkan finds, show that Diva Faustina denarii remained in active circulation for over a century, frequently appearing in hoards deposited during the Severan period and even into the mid-third century AD prior to the massive debasements under Decius and Gallienus. Many surviving specimens exhibit noticeable surface wear, edge softening, or light circulation scratches consistent with decades of manual exchange. Well-preserved specimens struck from fresh dies nevertheless demonstrate that Rome's die cutters maintained exceptional aesthetic standards even when charged with massive, high-volume commemorative coin production.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 60, no. 430
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC III Antoninus Pius 363. ric.3.ant.363
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. III: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 70, no. 363
4. Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil III: Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius. p. 142