Undoubtedly, the imperial coinage of Faustina the Younger is the largest surviving primary source for the portraiture and public image of the empress, and excellent work on the subject has already been done. 1 Martin Beckmann (B.) sets out to reevaluate the coinage, portraits, and public image of Faustina the Younger, primarily based on a die study of her gold coinage ( aurei ) from the imperial mint in Rome. 2 Die studies are a time-consuming and tedious task, but the results often allow us to better understand the workings of the mint and the (relative) chronology of coins and the images they carry. This is of primary importance for the coins of imperial women, as they are not dated. Moreover, the attribution and chronology of the sculptured portraits almost entirely depends on the coins. Only a correct interpretation of the numismatic evidence allows us to securely establish the relative and absolute chronology of Faustina’s portraiture.
Christian Niederhuber (Thu,) studied this question.