Faustina the Elder, Gold Aureus Coinage

Historical Context

Gold aurei naming Faustina the Elder belong to the coinage of Antoninus Pius and to the representation of his imperial household. Faustina, also called Faustina I or Maior, is the person portrayed and honoured. The issuing authority and the portrait subject are not interchangeable fields, especially on coins produced after her death.

The series includes lifetime and posthumous phases. Documented lifetime aurei are catalogued 138-139 CE, while posthumous comparisons are assigned broadly to 141-161 under Pius. The survey's approximate 138-161 span accommodates both. It does not imply that every reverse was struck throughout that interval or that mint activity continued without interruption in every year.

The shift in status changes the interpretive setting. Concordia provides a lifetime language of harmony. Posthumous images and titles place the same named woman within deified commemoration, using divine attributes and cult architecture. A temple reverse makes public honour visible through a building, while a rudder-bearing figure expresses it through personification.

These are related but distinct themes. They should not be reduced to a single funeral emission or a rigid sequence whose exact dates are inferred from the legend alone. The strongest chronology combines recorded types with demonstrated die relationships and external dating evidence. Neither a broad catalogue range nor the ruler's death date establishes an exact year for an isolated aureus.

Obverse: Iconographic Composition

The documented gold portraits are draped busts, facing right in several documented families. The elaborate hair treatment includes waves and coils drawn upward into a high arrangement. Direction, drapery and head covering are separate descriptive features, each of which may matter to a catalogue attribution.

A lifetime Concordia comparison with bust right is recorded as RIC 328a, while a left-facing comparison is recorded as 328b. This distinction is important because reversing the head direction does not necessarily change the reverse subject. It also shows why a statement that all aurei face right would erase a documented variant.

A description should not convert every band in the coiffure into pearls or a diadem. Nor should an uncertain head outline automatically be called a veil. Hair, textile and surface damage can produce similar visual boundaries on a small image. A precise bust code requires enough detail to distinguish them.

Portrait style alone cannot establish a sequence from living Augusta to deified woman. The inscription provides firmer evidence for status than an impression of youthfulness or solemnity. When a head covering or shoulder detail cannot be resolved, retaining a broader bust description is more informative than selecting an exact catalogue subletter from a different comparison.

Obverse: Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The lifetime formula FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG P P names Faustina as Augusta in relation to Antoninus Augustus. P P refers to Pater Patriae, 'Father of the Fatherland', in the emperor's titulature. The relationship 'wife of' is supplied in translation to explain the formula; the Latin word uxor is not thereby made part of the coin's engraved inscription.

The repeated abbreviation AVG must be expanded according to its grammatical setting. It can represent Augusta in Faustina's title and Augusti in the reference to Antoninus. A transcription preserves what the coin actually says, while an expansion explains those abbreviated forms.

Posthumous naming uses DIVA, 'deified', in formulas such as DIVA FAVSTINA and DIVA AVG FAVSTINA. The difference between these and a lifetime Augusta formula is a difference of status, not merely the omission or addition of decorative words. Nevertheless, a shorter legend does not itself supply a numbered year.

These formulas lack the annual counters that often assist classification of an emperor's issues. They may help organize a relative sequence, particularly when supported by die links, but cannot date every isolated coin on their own. Broken lettering should be recorded as broken: an inferred DIVA or AVG is not equivalent to a complete, readable inscription.

Reverse: Iconographic Composition

Concordia's lifetime seated design uses several attributes together. The figure holds a patera, while Spes and a cornucopia participate in the throne arrangement of the documented type. These details distinguish the composition from a generic seated woman with a bowl. They should not be replaced by the attributes of a superficially similar denarius.

Two posthumous rudder-bearing comparisons illustrate an equally important difference. One is catalogued as Fortuna holding a globe in her extended hand and a vertical rudder in the other. Another is described as Fortuna holding a patera and rudder. A globe and a patera are not interchangeable: their shape, presentation and relation to the hand can decide which family is appropriate.

Temple imagery provides a different kind of commemoration. A documented type presents a six-columned temple on a stepped podium, with sculptural figures in and above the pediment. Its reverse has no legend. The composition therefore cannot be described accurately by automatically adding AETERNITAS or AED DIV FAVSTINAE from another architectural issue.

In each case, classification depends on the complete arrangement. The same broad theme can appear with different attributes, and the same legend can accompany different images. A useful description identifies what the figure holds and how it is positioned before assigning a theological interpretation to the scene.

Reverse: Epigraphy and Inscriptions

CONCORDIA AVG joins the name of Harmony with an abbreviated imperial association. Its interpretation concerns concord in the imperial setting; it does not by itself specify the year of a wedding or prove that the coin commemorates an anniversary. The seated figure's attributes must still be described independently.

AETERNITAS means eternity or enduring existence. In posthumous coinage it offers a vocabulary of lasting commemoration, but does not require every depicted figure to be literally named Aeternitas. A rudder and other attributes may support an identification as Fortuna even where the accompanying inscription expresses eternity. Legend and iconography can operate at different levels of meaning.

DIVA and AVGVSTA likewise need to be read in context. Augusta is an imperial title; Diva is the status term for a deified woman. An Augusta-related reverse word cannot override an explicit posthumous obverse. Nor can the modern heading 'consecration coinage' be treated as proof that CONSECRATIO is engraved on every coin in that category.

The absence of lettering is itself descriptive evidence. A temple reverse catalogued as having no legend should remain anepigraphic in its transcription. Supplying a familiar architectural legend would conceal a real distinction between types. Where a lettered reverse is incomplete, the surviving words should guide the comparison rather than being reconstructed from the image alone.

Typology and Documented Variants

The following comparisons establish documented breadth across distinct portrait and reverse families.

• Lifetime Concordia, RIC Antoninus Pius 328a and 328b: aurei catalogued 138-139. The documented right- and left-facing busts distinguish variants; the reverse presents seated Concordia with patera and associated throne attributes.
• Posthumous Fortuna with globe and rudder, RIC III 348: Rome under Antoninus Pius, catalogued 141-161. A globe in the extended hand is central to the description.
• Posthumous Fortuna with patera and rudder, RIC 349 at family level: Rome, after 141. This is a distinct arrangement; a broad number does not establish a particular bust subletter.
• Posthumous temple, RIC III 406a: Rome under Pius, catalogued 141-161; six-columned temple and no reverse legend.

The correct catalogue match is a combination of metal and denomination, named person, status, bust and reverse. A denarius with a related design is not automatically an aureus type, and a catalogue number lacking a verified denomination may conceal a mismatch.

The rudder groups especially require the hand-held object to be resolved. If only the rudder is clear, the evidence may support a family of imagery without deciding between globe and patera. The same discipline applies to a temple whose lettering or sculptural details cannot be read: broad identification can be secure even when the exact architectural subtype is not.

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

The study of Faustina's gold demonstrates both the value and the limits of die evidence. Beckmann describes a substantial linked sequence of aureus dies and uses connections to dated coinage to place temple designs within a relative chronology. He argues for an earlier temple representation and a later revival associated with AETERNITAS, interpreting the change in the context of lasting cult and commemoration.

Such a reconstruction is stronger than dating from style alone, but its conclusions must be applied to the types and links actually established. It does not justify assigning every coin with AETERNITAS to a precise year, or deriving a universal four-phase calendar from a few broad catalogue entries.

Iconographic interpretation has a similar boundary. Calling a figure Fortuna from its attributes and translating the legend as Eternity are not necessarily contradictory. Claiming a specific scholarly theory of divine assimilation, however, requires an explicit scholarly argument rather than a convenient label. The descriptive difference between bowl and globe should be settled before a theological synthesis is proposed.

Rome is documented for the posthumous comparisons. No exact fineness, universal weight target, tariff or production total is established by the gold material label. Exact historical dates require independently datable documentary evidence; a broad catalogue range does not establish a day of death or deification. The broad numismatic scope can remain sound while those finer historical and technical questions remain open.

References

1. Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 88: Lifetime aureus of Faustina I. Lot 654, aureus dated 138-139, draped bust right, seated Concordia with patera, Spes and cornucopia; RIC Antoninus Pius 328a.
2. Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire, Oxford: Faustina I aureus, RIC 328b. Coin 179997; 138-139 under Antoninus Pius; FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG P P / CONCORDIA AVG; draped bust left; Concordia with patera, statuette of Spes and cornucopia; RIC 328b.
3. British Museum: Aureus of deified Faustina I, RIC III 348. 1856,1101.34; Rome, Antoninus Pius, 141-161; Fortuna holds globe and vertical rudder; draped bust right.
4. Landesmuseum Wuerttemberg via LEO-BW: Aureus RIC 349. MK 20583, museum-digital object 12550; Rome, after 141; Faustina maior under Antoninus Pius; Fortuna standing left with patera and rudder; catalogue family RIC 349.
5. British Museum: Faustina I temple aureus, RIC III 406a. 1912,0607.200; Rome, Antoninus Pius, 141-161; hexastyle temple, no reverse legend; draped bust right.
6. American Numismatic Society Magazine, Spring 2012: The Temple of Faustina. Martin Beckmann, discussion of gold die-link chain, temple types, dated links and interpretation of later AETERNITAS issues.