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A contemporary fake brass sestertius of the empress Julia Domna with a reverse showing Cybele Coin Type: Brass ancient fake sestertius of Julia Domna, 193-218 CE
Mint and Date: ? c. 200 - 220 CE?
Size and Weight: 28.5mm, 16.53g
Obverse: (IVLIA AV)GVSTA
Draped bust right.
Reverse: (MATRI MA)GNAE
Cybele seated right, holding tympanum against knee with left hand, right elbow leaning on the back of the throne, two lions seated right, sitting up on haunches on either side of the throne.
Exergue: S C
Ref: Cohen 140; RIC IV 841 (same specimen, in Paris, with a misinterpreted obverse legend IVLIA DOMNA AVG)
Provenance: brocante28 (eBay), June 2006.
BW Ref: 020 025 078
Click on the picture for a larger scale view of the coin
Note: This reverse was not used for Julia Domna, but for Faustina Junior. The coin is therefore a mule and an ancient fake. This coin was identified by Curtis Clay in June 2006 (from a photograph on the Forvm discussion board) as probably a double die match to the Cohen and RIC specimen, in Paris. Cohen misinterpreted the obverse legend as IVLIA DOMNA AVG and RIC followed suit. Mr Clay has a plaster cast of the coin referred to by RIC and Cohen and it has a faint AV to the right of Domna's forehead, which should have given Cohen the correct obverse legend. A second coin with the same impossible reverse legend but Cybele seated left, this one from Nomophile collection, was noted as Cohen 141, RIC 861 with the obverse legend IVLIA AVGVSTA.
The content of this page was last updated on 23 June 2006