Faustina I Silver Denarius RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A

Monetary Context and Historical Setting

The death of Empress Annia Galeria Faustina, known to modern historians as Faustina the Elder, late in the autumn of 140 AD prompted an extraordinary outpouring of institutional commemoration from her husband, the Emperor Antoninus Pius. Having enjoyed a harmonious marital and political partnership, the Senate and emperor immediately voted her consecration, formally incorporating her into the Roman state pantheon as Diva Faustina. Alongside traditional honours, including a temple in the Roman Forum and public games, Antoninus Pius founded an extensive charitable program known as the Puellae Faustinianae. This philanthropic institution offered alimentary support, grain allotments, and stipends to underprivileged or orphaned young girls across Italy, mirroring and expanding upon earlier alimentary foundations initiated under Nerva and Trajan. In monetary terms, imperial Rome routinely used the denarius, the backbone of civilian exchange and military pay, to disseminate ideological announcements across the provinces. By minting coins dedicated to the Puellae Faustinianae, such as RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A, the imperial administration effectively proclaimed that imperial grief was channelled directly into domestic welfare, aligning the sanctity of the newly deified Augusta with the benevolent guardianship of the Princeps.

Production and Mint Organization

The denarii of type RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A were produced exclusively at the primary imperial mint in Rome. During the Antonine period, the Rome mint operated with a sophisticated divisional structure composed of distinct officinae, responsible for handling diverse metals and executing coordinated issues for the emperor, the deified members of the house, and designated heirs like Marcus Aurelius. In 141 AD, the Rome mint was tasked with an enormous output of commemorative coinage for Diva Faustina, consisting primarily of gold aurei, silver denarii, and various bronze denominations. The silver denarius was struck on carefully prepared flans that were cast, trimmed, and heated before being hand-hammered between engraved bronze or iron dies. The standard weight of the denarius under Antoninus Pius hovered around 3.15 to 3.40 grams, though striking tolerances caused individual pieces to fluctuate. The fineness of the alloy in this period remained relatively consistent at around 79 to 83 percent fine silver, representing the stable monetary regime that characterized the first half of the Antonine dynasty prior to later second-century debasements.

Obverse Iconography and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A presents a right-facing bust of Faustina the Elder, draped in imperial fashion. A signature element of Faustina's numismatic portraiture is her elaborate and distinctive coiffure, which set a prominent aesthetic trend across the Mediterranean world. Her hair is intricately waved in multiple concentric loops that sweep backward across the temple and nape, brought upward to culminate in an ornate, plaited coil perched securely at the crown of her head. In accordance with the early consecration series of 141 AD, she is shown without a veil, emphasizing her timeless, youthful dignity in apotheosis. The portrait exhibits the serene naturalism characteristic of Antonine classicism, avoiding excessive idealization while elevating the empress to a transcendent, regal stature. Surrounding the portrait, the legend DIVA AVG FAVSTINA runs clockwise, framed neatly within the border of fine dots that delineates the die boundary.

Reverse Design and Iconographic Program

The reverse of RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A features an unusually intricate multi-figure narrative composition rarely attempted on the compact surface of a denarius. On the right side of the field, Emperor Antoninus Pius sits facing left on a curule chair upon a raised platform or tribunal. Standing alongside the seated emperor is a female attendant, often identified by scholars as either a personification of Pietas or an attendant matron assisting in the distribution. Both figures on the tribunal lean forward attentively toward the lower left of the field to receive a small child. Below the platform, an adult male citizen stands facing right, holding up a little girl toward the emperor's waiting hands. Further to the left, another citizen runs forward toward the dais, gently ushering a second young girl before him. This dense, five-figure tableau directly portrays the civic ceremony of the alimentary foundation, capturing the immediate human interaction between the benefactor and the beneficiaries. The horizontal composition creates depth and movement within a diameter of barely eighteen millimetres, showcasing the high engraving artistry achieved at the Rome mint.

Epigraphy and Legend Structure

The epigraphic program of RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A is concise yet explicit in its thematic purpose. The obverse legend, DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, translates as 'Divine Augusta Faustina'. The omission of 'AETERNITAS' or extended administrative titles reflects the immediate post-consecration phrasing favoured in early 141 AD, contrasting with later issues that expanded her nomenclature or added elaborate epithets. On the reverse, the legend reads PVELLAE FAVSTINIANAE in the nominative plural, translating literally as 'The Faustinian Girls'. Positioned either across the exergue or encircling the upper perimeter of the design depending on the specific die cutting, this inscription directly identifies the recipient class of the imperial charity. The lettering is rendered in clear, balanced Roman lapidary capitals, executed with sharp letterforms characteristic of mid-second-century die-engraving standards. The absence of consular or tribunician dating elements on both faces is typical for consecration issues, where the timeless divinity of the subject replaces standard civil chronology.

Typology, Dating, and Related Issues

Catalogued under RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A, this denarius belongs to the earliest chronological phase of Faustina's deification coinage, struck precisely in 141 AD. It corresponds typologically to similar compositions executed in other denominations, including gold aurei and bronze sestertii (such as RIC III 1118), which allowed the message of the foundation to reach every socio-economic stratum of the empire. Within the broader Diva Faustina coinage, type 399A stands apart from the vast subsequent waves of posthumous issues. While later denarii produced between 142 AD and the death of Antoninus Pius in 161 AD predominantly depicted single personifications like Aeternitas, Ceres, Vesta, or Juno standing or seated, the Puellae Faustinianae type captures an event-specific act of state munificence. The type is recognized as distinct in corpus literature from neighboring variants that feature differing arrangements of the imperial platform or differing numbers of subsidiary figures.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Survival

Although struck in substantial numbers to inaugurate the alimentary foundation, denarii of type RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A were produced for a relatively narrow window during 141 AD. Consequently, their survival rates in modern museum collections and hoards are markedly lower than the prolific Diva Faustina denarii carrying legends like AETERNITAS or CONSECRATIO. When present in imperial hoards across Britain, Gaul, the Rhine frontier, and the Danubian provinces, specimens often display moderate to significant circulation wear, demonstrating that they remained in commercial use for decades alongside ordinary issues of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. The high silver fineness ensured that these coins remained trusted currency until the massive debasements of the Severan era, at which point second-century denarii were widely withdrawn, melted down, or hoarded against inflationary pressures.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. pp. 51-52
2. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. III: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 74, no. 399A
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A. RIC III Antoninus Pius 399A
4. Untersuchungen zur romischen Reichspragung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil III: Die Reichspragung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius. no. 438