Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 1144. Estimate $600.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $1400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DIVA FAUSTINA SENIOR. Died 141 AD. Æ As (11.00 gm, 11h). Struck under Antoninus Pius, 147-157 AD. DIVA FAUSTINA, draped bust right, hair elaborately waved and piled in bun on top of head / S C in exergue, crescent surrounded by seven stars. RIC III 1199 (Antoninus Pius) var. (obv. legend); Strack 1249a var. (same); BMCRE 1476 (Antoninus Pius) var. (same); Cohen 275 var. (same); Mazzini 275* var. (same). Near EF, mottled gray-green patina. Apparently an unpublished variety. ($600)

From the Tony Hardy Collection.

The Diva issues of Faustina Senior continued to be struck long after her death and deification in 141 AD. Mattingly arranged this large series chronologically, based on the obverse legend. As the elder Faustina's synonymous daughter had been proclaimed Augusta in 147 AD after the birth of her first child, Mattingly concluded that the subsequent Diva issues dropped the AVGVSTA from the legend. While the crescent and stars reverse type is known from her initial issue of 141 AD and is clearly a reference to her heavenly translation, apart from our coin this type is apparently unknown with the later obverse legend. The completion of the Temple of Faustina about 150 AD as well as the impending ten-year anniversary of her deification would have provided an ample opportunity for reissuing the type as a reaffirming allusion to her divinity in connection with her temple's completion.