The PIE - TAS variety exists, and is slightly different: she holds out her drapery above the heads of the two small figures, and to do so extends both of her
hands outwards and downwards. See the BM specimen in their online image below; also illustrated in
BMC III, pl. 102.3. This BM coin was the only specimen of this variety known to
Strack 904; another from the same
rev. die but a different
obv. die is in my
collection.
In the variety on your coins, with
PIETAS in
exergue,
Pietas does not grasp her drapery, which merely hangs down from her left elbow; she
still extends her left hand above the
head of the figure behind her, as though to protect or guide him, but she raises her right forearm above the
head of the other small figure before her and also stretches out her fingers, as though praying or presenting rather than protecting.
Strack 903, citing examples in
Berlin and
Rome ex
Gnecchi. I also have a specimen, same dies as your new one, and same
rev. die as your old one, whose
obverse you haven't initially shown. Strack's descriptions are short and he does not point out these small typological differences between the two varieties.
