A new sestertius of Antoninus Pius?

[Jochen]

Hi!

A friend of the German Forum has asked for the attached sestertius of Antoninus Pius. It is not listed in RIC. But I found it in BMC IV, p.179 without a number:
Obv. ANTONINVS AVG PIVS PP, Head of Antoninus, lareate, r.
Rev. Securitas seated l., holding sceptre in l. hand and resting head in l., SECVRITAS COS II SC.
Below is the following note: Strack, No.770. Should rev. read SECVRITAS AVG COS II SC?

I think this means, that Mattingly hadn't this coin in hand and doubts the legend Strack has reported. Then this coin proofs that Strack was right!

Am I correct?

Best regards

[curtislclay]

Jochen's explanation is correct.

Strack saw the coin in the stock of the Paris coin dealer Feuardent, so Mattingly had certainly not seen a specimen!

One thing I have to look into: is the legend SECVRITAS alone on coins, not followed by AVG or IMPERI or P R, so unusual that Mattingly was justified to propose a correction to SECVRITAS AVG?

By chance, I acquired a specimen of this sestertius myself about a year ago.  Unfortunately it is worn; on rev. [CO]S II can be made out faintly in exergue, but [SECVRITAS] is illegible.

My specimen is from different dies than the one shown by Jochen, and its rev. type varies in two small details.  My coin shows a strut between the legs of Securitas' throne, omitted on Jochen's specimen.  On Jochen's coin Securitas seems to be supporting her head with her l. hand; on mine her l. hand is much farther from her head, as though she were perhaps drawing up her drapery.  However, the gesture of supporting head in hand is typical of Securitas, so that is probably what was meant on my coin too.

[curtislclay]

According to Cohen's index of rev. legends, the legend SECVRITAS alone occurs only one other time on Roman coins, namely on the bronze medallion of Diva Faustina I, Cohen 277. 

Otherwise, SECVRITAS in coin legends is always further modified, by AVG, IMPERI, or P R as I said, or also by IMP GERMAN (=Vitellius), ORBIS, PERPETVA, PVBLICA, REIPVBLICAE, ROMAE, or TEMPORVM.

So Mattingly was right to feel that SECVRITAS alone on this sestertius was unusual.  But that feeling didn't justify his proposed correction of the legend reported by the meticulous Strack, and Durmius' new specimen shows, as Jochen notes, that Strack's reading was in fact correct!

[moonmoth]

Curtis, your point about Securitas's hand is interesting (to me, anyway!).  On your specimen, the wrist is flexed in a way that would not allow the head to rest on the hand.  I am sure you are right to infer from the type that the engraver should have shown the head resting on the hand, with the arm resting on the top of the chair - supposedly a relaxed pose, though often made to look a bit uncomfortable - but I don't think he did.  He made a mistake.

Bill Welch

[melkart]

Hi

The coins was first seen here:

http://www.forum-numismatica.com/viewtopic.php?t=14146