Heritage World Coin Auctions
ANA Signature Sale 3056 3 Aug 2017
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Faustina Junior (Augusta, AD 147-175/6). AV aureus (21mm, 7.20 gm, 12h). NGC Gem MS 5/5 - 5/5. Rome, AD 161-176. FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust of Faustina right, hair in multiple parallel waves and gathered in chignon at nape of neck / SALVTI AVGVSTAE, Salus seated left, holding patera in outstretched right hand, feeding serpent entwined around altar. RIC (Aurelius) 716. Cohen 198. BMCRE (Aurelius) 153. Calicó 2075. Sheer perfection, a stunning aureus of a lovely lady, deeply struck on a broad, round flan, in an unimprovable state of preservation.
Ex Ex Sincona 4 (25 October 2011), lot 4111; Leu Numismatik 72 (12 May 1998), lot 455.
Annia Galeria Faustina the Younger was born in about AD 129 to the respected Senator T. Aurelius Antoninus and his wife, Faustina the Elder. When Antoninus was adopted by Hadrian as his successor in AD 138, the emperor arranged for her betrothal to Lucius Verus, also about eight, the son of the "heir consumptive" Aelius Caesar, who had died the same year. But when Antoninus inherited the throne, he broke the engagement and instead betrothed her to his wife's nephew (and adoptive son) Marcus Aurelius. The couple were wed in AD 145 to great rejoicing and went on to produce at least 13 children, of which perhaps five survived to adulthood, among them the future emperor Commodus. Faustina was a free, fun-loving spirit in the mold of her mother, which earned her the disapproval of staid Roman historians. Marcus Aurelius, after he became emperor in AD 161, spent long years on campaign, which must have strained the relationship. Faustina accompanied him on some of these and was given the honorific title Matris Castrorum, or "Mother of the Camp." Nevertheless, there were rumors of adulteries with soldiers, sailors and gladiators, which do not seem to have altered her husband's devotion to her. More serious are allegations that she had some part in the abortive rebellion of the eastern general Avidius Cassius in AD 175. Whatever the truth, she died later that same year, either of illness or as the result of an accident. Marcus grieved greatly and ordered her deification. The lifetime coinage of Faustina started at the time of her marriage and continued over 30 years, showing her from a fresh-faced princess to a mature matron, and providing a pageant of Roman feminine hairstyles over that span. This astoundingly well preserved aureus, with its invocation to protect the "health of the empress" (SALVTI AVGVSTA), may have been struck late in her life.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 25000-30000 USD
Faustina Junior (Augusta, AD 147-175/6). AV aureus (21mm, 7.20 gm, 12h). NGC Gem MS 5/5 - 5/5. Rome, AD 161-176. FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust of Faustina right, hair in multiple parallel waves and gathered in chignon at nape of neck / SALVTI AVGVSTAE, Salus seated left, holding patera in outstretched right hand, feeding serpent entwined around altar. RIC (Aurelius) 716. Cohen 198. BMCRE (Aurelius) 153. Calicó 2075. Sheer perfection, a stunning aureus of a lovely lady, deeply struck on a broad, round flan, in an unimprovable state of preservation.
Ex Ex Sincona 4 (25 October 2011), lot 4111; Leu Numismatik 72 (12 May 1998), lot 455.
Annia Galeria Faustina the Younger was born in about AD 129 to the respected Senator T. Aurelius Antoninus and his wife, Faustina the Elder. When Antoninus was adopted by Hadrian as his successor in AD 138, the emperor arranged for her betrothal to Lucius Verus, also about eight, the son of the "heir consumptive" Aelius Caesar, who had died the same year. But when Antoninus inherited the throne, he broke the engagement and instead betrothed her to his wife's nephew (and adoptive son) Marcus Aurelius. The couple were wed in AD 145 to great rejoicing and went on to produce at least 13 children, of which perhaps five survived to adulthood, among them the future emperor Commodus. Faustina was a free, fun-loving spirit in the mold of her mother, which earned her the disapproval of staid Roman historians. Marcus Aurelius, after he became emperor in AD 161, spent long years on campaign, which must have strained the relationship. Faustina accompanied him on some of these and was given the honorific title Matris Castrorum, or "Mother of the Camp." Nevertheless, there were rumors of adulteries with soldiers, sailors and gladiators, which do not seem to have altered her husband's devotion to her. More serious are allegations that she had some part in the abortive rebellion of the eastern general Avidius Cassius in AD 175. Whatever the truth, she died later that same year, either of illness or as the result of an accident. Marcus grieved greatly and ordered her deification. The lifetime coinage of Faustina started at the time of her marriage and continued over 30 years, showing her from a fresh-faced princess to a mature matron, and providing a pageant of Roman feminine hairstyles over that span. This astoundingly well preserved aureus, with its invocation to protect the "health of the empress" (SALVTI AVGVSTA), may have been struck late in her life.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 25000-30000 USD