Faustina Sr denarius NEWP
asheland
Posts: 22,681 ✭✭✭✭✭
It appears that the ancients bug may have bitten me. 
I’ve never really been into them, but found them mildly interesting. My good friends Michael and Rob are both into them and their enthusiasm has rubbed off a bit.
Michael was showing me his ancients collection and his Faustina stood out. I was really attracted to it’s appearance, nothing more.
I asked if he wanted to sell it but he didn’t. I certainly understand why. A year or so later I looked at the same coin and still found it interesting.
He encouraged me to check eBay to see what’s out there the other day so I did. Funny thing is when I searched, the very first listing really stood out. I looked through two pages of them but ended up going back to that original listing.
I made an offer and the seller accepted so here it is... I finally found an example.
Here’s Michael’s example that I originally liked:
And here’s my example:
I believe I may be seeking more Roman coins in the future.
Comments
She's common as heck and the one you got is when she was already deceased. The special ones are the lifetime ones since they only issued them for a short period before she passed.
Still, it's a lovely coin and ancients are so much fun.
Never though have thought buying 1 ancient on Cointalk in 2009 would change the way I collect coins.
@bronzemat indeed, I saw they were pretty common and available as I looked through two pages of them on ebay. and that was just in NGC holders
But, I like the look of this one a lot, I love the flow lines on the front and back. I can see how these can be addicting. 
My YouTube Channel
Why are they so common? Were they produced in large quantities?
Apparently so. And possibly hoards?
My YouTube Channel
Has anybody seen if there are reconstructions of apparent coins mintage numbers by the Romans?
Under the reigns of Antoninus Pius and the first part of Marcus Aurelius, Rome was hitting a high point in terms of peace, (relative) prosperity and population. Lots and lots of coins were being made.
There are no mintage figures, period. For some coins in some eras, we don't even know what the coins were called in antiquity by the Romans themselves - the names we typically use are made up by later scholars and adopted popularly.
There seems to be some estimates floating around out there, for example https://doi.org/10.2307/299558
I'd be really interested in estimates from mints in central Europe toward the end of Roman rule, if anybody specialises on these issues PM me
this book too:
https://books.google.ch/books?id=5yPDL0EykeAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false