According to the
standard catalogues, the additon of P P (Father of
his Country) to the
sestertii of
Antoninus Pius in 139 AD coincided with the shortening of their legends by the omission of
IMP T AEL CAES HADR on the
obverse and P M on the
reverse. So before P P, the legends were
IMP T AEL CAES HADR
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS / P M
TR POT COS II,
whereas after P P they were just
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P /
TR POT COS II.
On
denarii, however, the title P P was added shortly
before the contraction of the legends. There the
legend sequence was as follows, with
Reka Devnia specimen counts added to indicate the relative size and duration of the issues:
1.
IMP T AEL CAES HADR ANTONINVS / AVG PIVS
P M TR P COS II, 115
denarii in the
hoard.
2. The same, with P P added at the end of the
reverse legend, 8
denarii in the
hoard.
3.
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P / TR P
COS II or
TR POT COS II or
portrait of
Marcus Caesar with title
COS DES, 241
denarii in the
hoard.
It is not surprising, then, that
rare sestertii too have recently emerged that already add P P to the long legends, placing it however on the
obverse rather than the
reverse:
IMP T AEL CAES HADR
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P / P M
TR POT COS II S - C,
Fides standing r. holding two wheat ears downwards and plate of fruit before her
face.
The first
sestertius of these
types appeared in the Garonne
Hoard of 1965 and 1970, published in 1984, no. 3569, pl. LVIII: see scan below. In 1996 I was able to acquire a VF specimen from the same
obverse die but a different
reverse die. Recently I added another specimen, the third known to me, with a different
obverse legend break, ANT - ONINVS rather than ANTO - NINVS, and from a third
reverse die of the same
Fides standing
type; see dealer's pictures below.
It will be interesting to see if further
sestertii emerge, from the same or different
obverse dies, and perhaps with an additional
reverse type or two.
Pax standing and
Annona standing between
modius and prow may be expected, since the same two
types also occur both in the preceding issue of
sestertii without P P, and in the succeeding issue with P P and shortened legends. Will corresponding
aurei or middle bronzes ever turn up, that similarly combine the new title P P with the long form of Antoninus' legends?