Diva Faustina I Silver Denarius, RIC III Antoninus Pius 368

Monetary Context and Consecration Series

During the reign of Antoninus Pius, the silver denarius served as the backbone of imperial Roman state finances, military payroll, and inter-provincial commercial transactions. The imperial mint operated under a relatively stable monetary policy established during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian, maintaining the denarius at an average weight of roughly 3.15 to 3.35 grams with a fineness hovering between eighty and eighty-five percent silver. Following the premature death of the empress Annia Galeria Faustina in late 140 AD, Antoninus Pius petitioned the Senate for her formal deification. Upon her consecration as Diva Faustina, the state embarked on an unprecedentedly vast and enduring commemorative coinage program. The denarius catalogued as RIC III Antoninus Pius 368 belongs to this massive posthumous output. Unlike ephemeral memorial issues of earlier dynasties, the Antonine consecration series extended across multiple years and produced hundreds of distinct die combinations. This particular type joined an extensive group of silver issues honoring the divine empress as Augusta, affirming her elevated celestial status and associating her memory directly with the guardian deities responsible for the preservation and welfare of Rome.

Mint Organization and Production Standards

The production of RIC III Antoninus Pius 368 was centered exclusively at the imperial mint in Rome, which handled nearly all regular silver denarius strikings during the mid-second century AD. The mint operated through organized workshops known as officinae, where teams of celatores engraved iron dies and laborers struck heated silver planchets between paired dies. Because of the vast scale of the Faustina consecration series, die study scholarship by Martin Beckmann has demonstrated that numerous obverse and reverse dies were prepared simultaneously across different workshop lines. Physical specimens of RIC III Antoninus Pius 368 display the standard technical parameters of mid-second-century Roman denarii, with diameters typically spanning seventeen to nineteen millimeters and weights concentrated around 3.25 grams, though individual surviving pieces vary due to contemporary blank preparation tolerances, subsequent chemical leaching, and physical wear. Axial die orientation for this series is predominantly upright or slightly offset, reflecting the use of loosely aligned manual tongs during the striking process rather than rigid mechanical collars.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Portraiture

The obverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 368 features an idealized right-facing bust of Faustina the Elder, draped in a stola. Rendered with classical serenity, the portrait suppresses signs of aging in keeping with her posthumous divine status. Her hair is arranged in the sophisticated coiffure that defined court fashion in the 140s AD: thick, carefully waved tresses drawn back from the forehead in horizontal bands or loops, gathered upward, and coiled into a braided chignon pinned securely at the crown of the head. This elaborate hairstyle served as a visual signature across Antonine sculpture and numismatics, widely copied by elite women across the empire. The treatment of the drapery around the neckline exhibits delicate modeling, revealing individual fabric folds cast across the shoulder. The entire composition is encircled by a regular border of dots framing the portrait and legend. Die studies show minute variations in the exact placement of the hair loops and the fullness of the drapery, testifying to the work of multiple master engravers within the urban mint.

Reverse Iconography: Vesta and Sacred Regalia

The reverse design of this issue depicts Vesta, the Roman goddess of the domestic hearth, ritual purity, and the perpetual flame of the state. She stands facing left, fully clothed in long, flowing drapery and covered by a ritual veil, signifying maternal modesty and sacerdotal solemnity. In her extended right hand, she holds a simpulum, a traditional sacrificial ladle used by Roman priests and the Vestal Virgins to pour libations during ritual sacrifices. In her left hand, supported near her waist, she cradles the Palladium, the archaic wooden statuette of Pallas Athena believed to have been rescued from Troy by Aeneas and preserved within the inner sanctuary of the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum. As the ultimate talisman of Roman permanence, the Palladium underscored the divinely guaranteed perpetuity of the empire. By assimilating Diva Faustina to Vesta and presenting these sacral implements, the imperial government celebrated the deceased empress as a patroness of Roman religion and traditional virtue, reinforcing the moral and religious prestige of the Antonine regime.

Epigraphic Analysis and Titulature

The inscriptions on RIC III Antoninus Pius 368 are concise, elegant, and deliberately focused on the divine status of the empress. The obverse legend reads DIVA FAVSTINA, transcribed as Diva Faustina, or Divine Faustina. This simple two-word formulation omitted imperial patronymics, titles, and consular notations, relying purely on the sacred title Diva granted by senatorial decree upon her deification. The lettering runs continuously around the circumference from the lower left to the lower right. The reverse carries the single title AVGVSTA, meaning Augusta, which circles clockwise around the standing figure of Vesta. While Augusta had been awarded to living empresses beginning with Livia, its continuation on posthumous consecration issues emphasized Faustina's enduring rank within the imperial hierarchy and her continued protection over the imperial household. Both legends are executed in crisp, classical Latin capitals characterized by clear serifs and disciplined proportional spacing typical of the central Roman mint during the Antonine period.

Typology and Chronological Placement

Within the typology of the Diva Faustina coinage, RIC III Antoninus Pius 368 occupies a pivotal position among the post-consecration issues assigned broadly to 141 AD and subsequent years. Harold Mattingly and Edward Sydenham catalogued the type in Volume III of The Roman Imperial Coinage under the general AVGVSTA reverse group. Later granular analyses by Paul Strack and Martin Beckmann have refined the chronology of this vast series by analyzing die links, portrait evolutions, and hoard patterns. The AVGVSTA series with various standing goddesses, including Vesta, followed immediately after the initial funeral issues inscribed CONSECRATIO. While the initial wave of striking commenced in 141 AD following the senatorial decree of deification, the immense popularity and administrative utility of the Augusta types meant that related reverse dies were likely produced over a span of several years during the middle 140s AD. RIC III 368 is catalogued alongside closely related issues bearing veiled or diademed obverse variations and differing attributes for Vesta, making the specific combination of an unadorned draped bust with Vesta holding both simpulum and Palladium the diagnostic criterion for this exact type.

Circulation Patterns and Archaeological Recovery

Upon leaving the urban mint at Rome, denarii of RIC III Antoninus Pius 368 were disbursed into imperial circulation channels, frequently through military distributions along the Rhine and Danube frontiers as well as grain and administrative payments in Italy and the western provinces. Because the silver denarius of Antoninus Pius enjoyed high public confidence and consistent metal purity, the Diva Faustina issues circulated heavily throughout the second century AD. Archaeological hoard evidence from across Britain, Gaul, Germania, and the Danubian provinces regularly records RIC III 368 alongside contemporary issues of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and later Faustina the Younger. Many surviving specimens display substantial surface wear, indicating that they remained in commercial hands for decades. The widespread hoarding of mid-second-century denarii during the political instability and currency devaluations of the late second and third centuries AD helped preserve numerous examples of this issue, which finally fell out of active monetary use during the massive debasement reforms under the Severan and soldier emperors.

References

1. Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces. ANS Numismatic Studies 26
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 60, no. 435
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. III: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 69, no. 368
4. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC III Antoninus Pius 368. RIC III Antoninus Pius 368
5. Untersuchungen zur romischen Reichspragung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil III: Antoninus Pius. Typenrepertoire no. 417