Julia Mamea dupondius

[a]

Hi,

Please help me to define the rarity grade of this Julia Mamea FELICITAS TEMP dupondius.

7.6g

Best Regards,
Explorer

[newbeonecoinobe]

If I am reading RIC correctly it looks like RIC IV part B, #682 listed as Common C.29

Nice looking Coin

Pete

[casata137ec]

Well, "common" or not, it is a beautiful coin.

Chris

[a]

Thank you, Pete.

Regards,
Explorer

[curtislclay]

This is certainly a scarce coin.

Only one spec. in CoinArchives, one in Berk photofile, none in Wildwinds.

Mamaea was the first lady to use the crescent behind shoulders to indicate her dupondii, and only three such coins occur in any quantity: FELICITAS TEMP like yours, FELICITAS PVBLICA with goddess standing and leaning on column, FELICITAS PVBLICA with goddess seated.

Generally, Mamaea's types occur in all denominations, aurei, denarii, sestertii, middle bronzes.  FELICITAS TEMP is her ONLY ordinary-looking type which in contrast is restricted to a single denomination, namely dupondii only.

Sev. Alex. also has two types that occur on dupondii only:  RESTITVTOR MON, Emperor standing, and MON RESTITVTA, Moneta standing, obviously contemporary with each other; not only is the theme the same, but the illustrated BM specimens, 544 and 546 on pl. 19, share the same obv. die.

I suspect that Mamaea's FELICITAS TEMP may be contemporary with these two dupondius types of Alexander.

RIC's "Common" for this dupondius may be disregarded: it simply reflects Cohen 29's "Common", which does not mean "readily obtainable", but rather "not particularly sought after by collectors, so not costly", when and if it does occur!

[commodus]

For whatever it is worth, it has been my observation that "common" in RIC means little if anything.

[mix_val]

I actively collect Severus Alexander and his family and I have only two of the dupondii Curtis mentioned.  It's rare and you have a nice example.