Just got in a
sestertius of
Antoninus Pius whic h I purchased last week. It is one of the crown series representing
Africa with a
scorpion at her feet:
Æ
Sestertius (26,92g, Ø 33mm, 6h).
Rome mint. Struck AD 139.
Obv.:
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P, laureate
head right.
Rev.:
AFRICA around,
COS II in ex., S C across
field,
Africa wearing
elephant headdress, standing left, holding
wreath and
cornucopiae,
scorpion at her feet.
This coin is a variant of
RIC 574 or 576 and
Cohen 21 or 24, although
RIC 576, copying
Cohen 21, describes a lion's
head at her feet.
Cohen 21 presumably is based on the specimen in the
Paris collection, as none of the three specimens in the British Museum show anything at Africa's feet. When checking Strack's entries on the
Africa type variants (771-774), I see no mention of a lion's
head, but two entries (771 and 772) with a
scorpion, one of them found also in the
Paris collection. It is hard to believe that
Cohen misinterpreted the
scorpion at Africa's feet as a lion's
head, but it certainly looks like it.