In 143 Antoninus won
his second
imperatorial acclamation for
victory in
Britain, a
success that he commemorated on
his coinage by using
IMPERATOR II or
IMP II as a
reverse legend with a number of
types in 143-144. After 145, however, that title no longer appeared on
his coinage for over a decade, until
IMP II reappeared as
part of
his obverse legend in all
denominations from about 1 Feb. 156 until the end of 158, according to
Strack probably in connection with a Dacian war fought by legates of Antoninus at about that time.
According to official coins,
IMP II was reintroduced quite early in Antoninus' nineteenth tribunician year, when
his legend form changed from
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XIX /
COS IIII to
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P
IMP II /
TR POT XIX
COS IIII.
It may be, however, that
IMP II was first added to Antoninus'
reverse legend, before being almost immediately transferred to
his obverse legend, for an ancient
counterfeit of quite high silver content shows this apparently transitional
legend form:
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XIX /
IMP II COS IIII.
It seems very unlikely that an ancient counterfeiter,
confronted with an official coin showing
IMP II at the end of the
obv. legend and
TR POT XIX on the
reverse, decided on
his own initiative to interchange the positions of the two titles, moving
IMP II to the
reverse and TR P XIX to the
obverse. Probably he was in fact copying an official
denarius, no specimens of which have yet come to light. So we should be on the lookout for official
denarii with TR P XIX on the
obverse and
IMP II on the
reverse, with all three of the
reverse types that Antoninus was striking at the time,
Pax standing as on the ancient
counterfeit, plus
Annona standing and
Fortuna standing.
The pictures below show the ancient
counterfeit, sold by Savoca Coins on
eBay on 22 August 2018, followed by two official
denarii with the same
Pax standing
reverse type, first with TR P XIX but before the re-introduction of
IMP II, then with
IMP II in the
obverse legend and
TR POT XIX on the
reverse.