1966.48

Denarius of Faustina the Younger, reign of Marcus Aurelius

3.525 g. AD 161-176

Obv.: Bust of Faustina the Younger r., hair waved and drawn back in coil on neck. FAVSTINA AVGVSTA.

Rev.: Diana standing l., draped, with torch held in both hands. DIANA LVCIF(era).

Faustina the Younger, daughter of Antoninus Pius and wife of Marcus Aurelius, was given the title ‘Augusta’ in her father’s reign, on the birth of her first child in AD 146-147. Marcus Aurelius received tribunician power at the same time. Faustina died c. AD 176 while in the East with Marcus. She was then deified.

Faustina was associated with all the major goddesses of the Roman state religion (e.g. Juno, Venus, Diana). As Lucifera, ‘bringer of light’, Diana was connected with childbirth. Faustina had at least ten children, and Marcus was the first emperor for almost a hundred years to have a natural son succeed him. 

Sear, D.R., Roman Coins and their Values 5 vols (London, Spink, 2000-2014) 5250; Seaby, H.A., Roman Silver Coins (London, B.A. Seaby, 1967) 85; Mattingly, H., Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, 6 vols (London, 1965) M87, pl. 55.4, St. A520b; Mattingly, H., E.A. Sydenham, C.H. Sutherland, R.A. Carson, The Roman Imperial Coinage 13 vols (London,  Spink, 1923-1994) III, 268 no. 674; Robertson, A. Roman Imperial Coins in the Hunter Coin Cabinet, University of Glasgow 5 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962-1982) II 351 no. 2.