ANTONINUS PIUS BRONZE AS – MYTHOLOGICAL ROME FOUNDATION STORY OF MARS AND RHEA SILVIA – XF NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN (Inv. 11170)

$975.00

ROMAN EMPIRE.  ANTONINUS PIUS, AD 138-161.
Bronze As, 9.81 g, 27 mm. Struck ca AD 140-144 at the mint of Rome.
Obv. Laureate head of Antoninus Pius right.
Rev. Mars, floating, approaches the dreaming Rhea Silvia, asleep on a rock.
RIC 694(c); C. 886; BMC 1370.
Ex Ritter von Marabini Collection and Gorny & Mosch 124 (10/14/2003), 2493.
NGC graded XF, Strike 5/5  Surface 3/5, smoothing noted, a fine example of a popular reverse type commemorating the “divine” conception of Romulus and Remus.   For a current discussion of this type see Constantin A. Marinescu, ” Levitating Gods and Dream Imagery on Roman Coinage,” in Mary Edwards and Elizabeth Bailey, eds, Gravity in Art: Essays on Weight and Weightlessness in Painting, Sculpture and Photography (McFarland, 2012), pp. 22-34.