Pudicitia was the personification of chaste modesty. The word "pudicity," though rarely used, survives today with the same meaning. She appears on the coins of several empresses, including Faustina Junior, the daughter of Antoninus Pius and wife of Marcus Aurelius. Ironically, this daughter of an exemplary family was rumoured to be far from chaste.

Pudicitia was pictured as a fully clothed and veiled woman, usually seated and holding a long sceptre at an angle, and usually pulling her veil away from her face. The dupondius of Herennia Etruscilla on the right is a good example of this, with the legend PVDICITIA AVG, the modesty of the empress. This was considered a very suitable type for an empress, showing her adherence to traditional values. On this coin, the veil is peing pulled directly from Pudicitia's forehead.

Unlike many other Roman reverse types, there were few variations in this depiction.

Here are three of the fairly subtle variants that can be found. From left to right, the right hand is held to the breast and there is no sceptre; the veil is being drawn out from the shoulder; and the veil is looped from the forehead and is being grasped in the hand. These coins are a denarius of Lucilla; an antoninianus of Otacilia Severa; and a denarius of Julia Maesa.

Occasionally, Pudicitia is shown standing, as in this last example, an antoninianus of Herennia Etruscilla, with the veil once again being drawn out from the forehead.

There is not much to say about Pudicitia. The type was not meant to be exciting or even particularly interesting. It was sending a message of staid conformity. For some empresses, it is the type you are most likely to come across. Julia Maesa, for example. She was the sister of an empress and the grandmother of two emperors, at which time she was apparently a power behind the throne, thought to have engineered the removal of one grandson in favour of the other. But her coins did not hint of that, speaking of piety, modesty, and celebrating the happiness of the age.