Heritage World Coin Auctions
ANA Signature Sale 3033 8 August 2014
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Faustina Junior, wife of Marcus Aurelius (Augusta, AD 149-175/6). AV aureus (20mm, 7.28 gm, 5h). Rome, AD 149-152. FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, draped bust of the young Faustina right with hair waved and rolled into double bun coiled at back, wound through with band of pearls and held in place with hair band / V-E-NVS, Venus standing facing, head left, holding apple in right hand and rudder in left, around which dolphin entwined. RIC 517c. Calicό 2097. Fully lustrous and struck from dies of exquisite style. NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 4/5, Fine StyleEx Roma IV (London, 30 September 2012), lot 563. Faustina is here presented as a young princess, having just been named Augusta (Empress) by the Senate as an homage her father, Antoninus Pius. In this role she replaced her mother, Faustina Senior, who had died in AD 141. She was about 20 at the time of her elevation and had been married to Marcus Aurelius Caesar, the heir apparent, for four years. The die engraver, an artist of exceptional talent, has captured her in the full bloom of her youth and beauty, with an elegant hairstyle that would be closely copied 15 centuries later by the ladies of the Napoleonic court. The reverse figure of Venus is also beautifully modeled, with her voluptuous curves quite evident beneath her voluminous stola; the dainty manner in which she holds the apple also shows the engraver's eye for telling detail.
Estimate: 15000-20000 USD
Faustina Junior, wife of Marcus Aurelius (Augusta, AD 149-175/6). AV aureus (20mm, 7.28 gm, 5h). Rome, AD 149-152. FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, draped bust of the young Faustina right with hair waved and rolled into double bun coiled at back, wound through with band of pearls and held in place with hair band / V-E-NVS, Venus standing facing, head left, holding apple in right hand and rudder in left, around which dolphin entwined. RIC 517c. Calicό 2097. Fully lustrous and struck from dies of exquisite style. NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 4/5, Fine StyleEx Roma IV (London, 30 September 2012), lot 563. Faustina is here presented as a young princess, having just been named Augusta (Empress) by the Senate as an homage her father, Antoninus Pius. In this role she replaced her mother, Faustina Senior, who had died in AD 141. She was about 20 at the time of her elevation and had been married to Marcus Aurelius Caesar, the heir apparent, for four years. The die engraver, an artist of exceptional talent, has captured her in the full bloom of her youth and beauty, with an elegant hairstyle that would be closely copied 15 centuries later by the ladies of the Napoleonic court. The reverse figure of Venus is also beautifully modeled, with her voluptuous curves quite evident beneath her voluminous stola; the dainty manner in which she holds the apple also shows the engraver's eye for telling detail.
Estimate: 15000-20000 USD