new variant of Pius Genio Senatus as?

[Diederik]

Last week I bought this interesting, yet seemingly common looking as:
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS - PP TR P COS III laureate draped bust right
GENI O - S[SENATVS] Genius of the senate standing left, holding branch and sceptre.
10.8 gr 27 mms wide
Apparently an 'as', which we find in RIC as 681, but then only laureate, not draped. In BMC there is mentioning of this coin on page 219   and reference to Cohen 401.
There is however, no mentioning of a draped variant.
You comments are highly appreciated.
( I know there is some tooling on this coin, but not THAT dramatic)


Frans

[curtislclay]

Berlin has a draped specimen, according to Strack 834.

An attractive coin!

[Diederik]

Curtis,
Thank you for your fast reply! OK, not unique but I settle for a second specimen recorded Yes, despite the light working over, it shows good detail and looks to be from an old collection looking at the acquired patina.


Frans

[curtislclay]

I bought this coin from CNG E313, 23 Oct. 2013, lot 263, chiefly for the left-facing portrait. That is a rare variant: Strack 834 knew two specimens, Paris and Berlin, and the Berlin specimen that he illustrates on his pl. X is from the same obverse die as mine. Two other left-facing dupondii that Strack illustrates on the same plate are also from that same obverse die: 823 with rev. BONO EVENTVI and 830 with rev. GENIVS POPVLI ROMANI.

Two details of the reverse type of my new coin are also worth noting: the Genius of the Senate places his weight on his left leg and slightly bends his right leg, instead of the other way around, weight on right leg, which would be the usual pose for a left-facing figure. Moreover, the scepter he bears is eagle-tipped. I found a similar sestertius in CoinArchives, with weight on left leg and eagle-tipped scepter: see the second picture below. Also, a sestertius with eagle-tipped scepter, but weight on right leg. Usually, however, the Genius places his weight on his right leg and his scepter has nothing or just a knob at the top end. That is the type of the head-left GENIO SENATVS dupondius in Berlin that Strack illustrates. The sharp-eyed Cohen had noted, however, that the scepter on the sestertii of this type is sometimes eagle-tipped. I have pointed out this unusual variant pose for a left-facing figure, weight on left rather than right leg, two other times on Forvm: a Victory crowning the emperor on a sestertius of Domitian and the figure of Honos on a sestertius of Marcus Aurelius as Caesar.

Frans' As seems to be the rarest of the three bronze denominations with this GENIO SENATVS reverse type. BMC: 6 sestertii, 4 dupondii, no As. Strack cites the head-laureate As from Berlin, Paris, and Vatican, implying that Vienna too is lacking the As. CoinArchives: 10 or more sestertii, 5 or more dupondii, only 1 As.

[Thanks, Robert B., for moving this thread from Identification Help to Roman Coins!]

[Diederik]

Code: [Select]

the Genius of the Senate places his weight on his left leg and slightly bends his right leg, instead of the other way around
Very astute observation! I immediately checked my sestertii (1x laureate, 2x laureate draped), dupondius (radiate only) and asses (1x laureate and 1x laureate draped) and all have the left leg bent. The dupondius certainly has an eagle-tipped staff.


Frans

[curtislclay]

The dupondius certainly has an eagle-tipped staff.

From the same or a different rev. die than mine?

Thanks for the details from your impressive sample!

[Diederik]

Here's the dupondius. Not totally sharp, but made 'from hand' just now.

Regards,


Frans

[curtislclay]

Thanks for the image.

Now, of course, it occurs to me that the dies had to be different, because yours shows weight on r. not l. leg!

I see two blobs at the top of the scepter. Do they make a definite eagle when viewed in hand?

[Diederik]

The left one certainly is, but I just removed the other one with my fingernail!


Frans

[curtislclay]

On this specimen of the GENIO SENATVS As, his pose is normal (weight on right leg), and at the tip of his staff is not only an eagle, but an eagle on top of a globe.

The edges of the coin are lightly hammered up, definitely in antiquity, because they are covered with green deposits that I removed from the rest of the coin! So it may well be a "proto-contorniate", that was used, like the contorniates themselves later, as a New Year's gift.

My reason for buying the coin, however, was the clear traces of an undertype at the lower left of the reverse: one can read TR P and the S of the undertype's S - C, a space being left between the T and the R to make room for that S. Moreover, the groundline is from the undertype, and at the left of the groundline one sees a foot with just its toes touching the ground, as though from a figure running towards the right.

Now Antoninus did not strike many As-types with rev. legend TR POT COS III S C, and the only one that fits that running foot is Romulus advancing right holding spear and shouldering trophy, like the second coin shown below. Note how the details of the type mean that the S - C had to be placed low, forcing the S quite near the TR of TR POT, exactly the position it occupies in the undertype of my new coin.

It is interesting and a surprise that a TR POT Romulus rev. die for asses was evidently being struck alternately at the same anvil with a GENIO SENATVS die, the legend of the anvil die itself ending TR P COS III, so being inappropriate for combination with the Romulus die bearing the same titles! We may confidently expect that a properly struck muled As of this combination will turn up some day, with TR P COS III on the obv. and TR POT COS III on the reverse. Evidently the GENIO SENATVS and TR POT COS III Romulus types were being produced at about the same time. That is interesting, because one might have assumed that the types with different divisions of the emperor's titles between obv. and rev. were struck in different issues.

Another indication that Hill's assignment of undated types in his Undated Coins was mostly pure guesswork, as I have stated before: Hill assigned the TR POT Romulus type (his no. 269) to 140, but the GENIO SENATVS type (his no. 495) to 142!