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Nicomedia AE21 RecGen 253.1 of Plautilla

Plautilla AE21 of Bithynia, Nicomedia. (NIB?) FOU PLAUTILLA CEB, draped bust right / NIKOMHDEWN DIC NEWKORWN, Skylla left with dolphin (?) and rudder over shoulder.

Lot No.2848. VG/Fine but a great portrait of this scarce empress.

$ 255.

Splendid portait, and quite an interesting type. Caracalla had been forced to marry Plautilla and didn't like her, and one can imagine a hidden meaning to a reverse depicting a female monster sporting a hair style remarkably similar's to Plautilla's on the obverse!

Plautilla was the daughter of a powerful praetorian prefect. Her marriage to Caracalla in 202 AD was a political arrangement, and after the fall of her father in 205, Caracalla apparently wasted no time in banishing her. Her short tenure translates into scarcity of her coinage.