Fifth Known Annia Faustina Denarius

Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 704. Estimate $50000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $62500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Annia Faustina. Augusta, AD 221. AR Denarius (3.23 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck under Elagabalus. ANNIA FAVSTINA AVG, bare-headed and draped bust right / CONCORDIA, Elagabalus, laureate and togate, and Annia Faustina, diademed and draped, standing vis-à-vis, clasping right hands;star between them. RIC IV 232 (Elagabalus); Thirion 490; RSC 1; BMCRE p. 570, † (Elagabalus). EF, toned, slightly frosty surface. Extremely rare, the fifth and probably the finest known.

After divorcing his second wife, the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa, amid criticism over the impropriety of the marriage, Elagabalus wed Annia Faustina, the great-granddaughter of Marcus Aurelius. This coin was struck to commemorate the marriage and depicts the young imperial couple in dextrarum iunctio (clasping right hands), a symbol of concord and the gesture adopted during marriage ceremonies. The marriage was short-lived, however, and Elagabalus divorced Annia Faustina within the year and remarried Aquilia Severa. At this point Annia disappears from the historical record.

Due to the her short reign as Augusta, coins of Annia Faustina are incredibly rare. This is the fifth known and possibly finest example of this type. It was struck from the same dies as specimens appearing in Leu 22 (8-9 May 1979), lot 316 (=Jameson Collection, 214) and Gorny & Mosch 155 (5 March 2007), lot 342. The other two examples are in Paris and Madrid.