CNG 111, Lot: 724. Estimate $5000. Sold for $6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Faustina Junior. Augusta, AD 147-175. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.21 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck under Antoninus Pius, circa AD 147-150. FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL, draped bust left / CONCORDIA, dove standing right. RIC III 503b (Pius); Calicó 2044c; BMCRE 1090 (same rev. die); Biaggi 922; Jameson 138; Mazzini 60 (same rev. die). Near EF, lustrous. Attractive youthful portrait.

From the Brexit Collection. Ex Münzen und Medaillen AG 43 (12 November 1970), lot 366.

Annia Galeria Faustina the Younger was born in about AD 129 to Antoninus Pius and his wife, Faustina the Elder. In AD 138, the emperor Hadrian arranged for her betrothal to Lucius Verus, also about eight. After Antoninus inherited the throne, he broke the engagement and instead betrothed her to his other adoptive son, Marcus Aurelius. The couple were wed in AD 145 to great rejoicing. Faustina was named Augusta in AD 147, replacing her late mother. Her coinage commences that year and continues for the next three decades, showing her passage from a fresh-faced princess to a mature matron, and providing a pageant of Roman feminine hairstyles over that span.