RIC III Antoninus Pius 348a (denarius) Diva Faustina Silver Denarius

Monetary Context and Consecration

The death of Empress Faustina the Elder in the late autumn of AD 140 or early AD 141 prompted an unprecedented commemorative program under Antoninus Pius. Deeply devoted to his wife, the emperor secured her formal deification from the Senate, inaugurating an expansive series of posthumous coinages across gold, silver, and bronze denominations. Within the bimetallic monetary structure of the Antonine principate, the silver denarius served as the principal currency for daily commercial transactions, state stipends, and legionary pay across the empire. Posthumous issues dedicated to Diva Faustina played an indispensable ideological role, communicating imperial piety, marital fidelity, and dynastic stability to the wider public. From an economic standpoint, the denarii of Antoninus Pius maintained the metallurgical standard established following the Trajanic monetary adjustments. During this phase of Antoninus Pius's reign around AD 141, denarii were typically struck at a theoretical standard of ninety-six pieces per Roman pound, yielding an average individual coin weight of approximately 3.2 to 3.4 grams. The silver fineness hovered near seventy-five to eighty percent, reflecting a controlled and relatively stable fiscal administration prior to the severe debasements of the late second and third centuries. Struck in immense volumes, the consecration silver reinforced trust in the imperial currency while simultaneously transforming everyday specie into instruments of dynastic veneration.

Production and Mint Organization

All regular precious-metal coinage of Antoninus Pius during this period was produced centrally at the mint of Rome. Operating under the administrative oversight of the imperial treasury, the Rome mint was organized into multiple distinct officinae, or workshops, which shared the vast burden of striking gold aurei, silver denarii, and bronze issues. The engraving of dies for the Diva Faustina consecration series was entrusted to master die-cutters of exceptional skill, resulting in remarkably uniform portraiture and balanced reverse compositions across high production volumes. Flans for silver denarii were cast in globular or flattened molds, heated, and struck between hand-carved bronze or iron dies using manual hammer blows. Die alignment for the Rome mint in this era was predominantly oriented near twelve o'clock or six o'clock, reflecting careful mechanical positioning during the striking process. The output of the Rome mint in AD 141 was extraordinarily robust, as dies were rapidly consumed to produce hundreds of thousands of denarii bearing Faustina's divine likeness. Slight variations in flan thickness, strike centering, and border execution illustrate the rapid pace of production without compromising the overall artistic integrity characteristic of Antonine Rome.

Obverse Iconography and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 348a presents a right-facing, draped bust of the deified Empress Faustina the Elder. Unlike later variants in the extended posthumous series that depict the empress wearing a veil or a stephane, the bust on type 348a is bare-headed and draped gracefully at the neckline and shoulders. The portrait is renowned in Roman numismatic art for its faithful depiction of Faustina's distinctive coiffure, a style that set aristocratic fashion throughout the Roman Mediterranean during the middle of the second century AD. Her hair is separated into carefully waved horizontal bands or loops that frame the forehead and ears before sweeping upward toward the crown. At the apex of the head, the hair is woven into elaborate plaits and gathered into a high, tiered coil or chignon. The die-cutters rendered these complex strands with delicate, rhythmic linear incisions, producing a plastic sense of volume. The portrait conveys idealized mature beauty, serenity, and aristocratic elegance, stripped of temporal fragility to present Faustina as an immortal member of the divine pantheon. The bust is surrounded by a bead-and-reel or dotted border encircling the flan.

Reverse Design and Allegorical Syncretism

The reverse of type 348a portrays a draped female figure standing left. In her outstretched right hand, she balances a celestial globe, while her left hand steadies a vertical ship's rudder placed close to her side, with the tiller resting against or near the ground. The figure is draped in a long stola that cascades to her feet, often paired with a mantle that falls over her shoulder, rendered with naturalistic, fluid drapery folds typical of mid-second-century Antonine die work. Numismatic scholarship has extensively discussed the specific identity of this figure. While catalogued in foundational reference works such as RIC as Fortuna on account of the rudder and globe, the accompanying reverse legend AETERNITAS suggests a more complex allegorical personification. In Roman imperial iconography, the globe signifies cosmic sovereignty and universal order, while the rudder symbolizes divine guidance and the steering of imperial destiny. By wedding these traditional attributes of Fortuna to the personification of Aeternitas, the design achieves a theological syncretism: it portrays eternity not merely as timelessness, but as the active, providential steering of the Roman world by the deified empress and the imperial house.

Epigraphy and Legends

The legends on RIC III Antoninus Pius 348a are notable for their conciseness, visual clarity, and ideological gravity. The obverse inscription reads DIVA FAVSTINA, running clockwise along the rim. By omitting traditional titles such as Augusta or the patronymic and matrimonial designations common on her lifetime issues, the legend elevates the single concept of her apotheosis. The word DIVA explicitly signals her senatorial consecratio and formal entry into the state cult, declaring her divinity to every user of the coin across the provinces. The reverse inscription consists solely of the single word AETERNITAS, placed continuously around the upper perimeter or flanking the standing figure. The epigraphy displays classical Roman imperial capital letters of balanced proportions, featuring clean serifs and uniform spacing. There are no mintmarks, officina signatures, or control letters present on this issue, as was standard for the central imperial silver coinage of the mid-second century. The interplay between DIVA FAVSTINA and AETERNITAS effectively synthesizes the coin's political theology, promising everlasting renown to the empress and enduring stability to the Antonine principate.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the typological framework of The Roman Imperial Coinage, RIC III 348 represents an important component of the initial Aeternitas series struck immediately after Faustina's deification in AD 141. Type 348 is subdivided into distinct sub-varieties based on obverse bust drapery and veiling. Subtype 348a specifically denotes the draped bust without veil, whereas subtype 348b classifies specimens bearing a veiled and draped bust. Paul Strack, in his fundamental study of the coinage of Antoninus Pius, demonstrated that the bare-headed, draped portrait types generally preceded the widespread adoption of the veiled bust, which became increasingly dominant in the prolonged posthumous issues struck later in the reign. Type 348a is closely related to a family of contemporary denarii bearing the legend AETERNITAS with different divine personifications and attributes, including figures holding a phoenix on a globe, raising a hand while holding a sceptre, or holding an outstretched patera. The globe-and-rudder variety catalogued under RIC 348a captures a distinct moment in AD 141 when the iconographical vocabulary of Faustina's consecration was rapidly developing, establishing motifs that would be repeated in bronze and gold denominations throughout the remainder of Antoninus Pius's principate.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Survival

Denarii of the Diva Faustina consecration series, including RIC III 348a, were struck in substantial numbers and achieved exceptionally wide geographic distribution. Archaeological finds and numismatic hoard evidence demonstrate that these coins circulated extensively throughout the western provinces, including Britannia, Gallia, and the German frontier, as well as the Danubian basin, Italy, and the Levant. Because Antoninus Pius maintained stable monetary standards, these denarii were trusted across all sectors of the provincial economy and were frequently integrated into civil and military pay chests. Due to their high initial silver content relative to later third-century issues, denarii of Faustina the Elder enjoyed an extraordinarily long period of circulation. Hoard contexts from the Severan period and the mid-third century frequently contain well-worn examples of RIC 348a, demonstrating that they remained in active circulation for sixty to eighty years after their initial striking in AD 141. Surviving specimens often exhibit gentle, even wear across the high relief points of the hair and drapery, with heavily worn pieces reflecting prolonged participation in the Roman market economy prior to the systemic recoinages of the third-century imperial crisis.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 52, nos. 350-352
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC III Antoninus Pius 348a (denarius). ric.3.ant.348a_denarius
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. III: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 69, no. 348a
4. Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil III: Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius. no. 403