Antoninus Pius, Rome, AR Denarius

DIVVS ANTONINVS, Bare head right, with drapery on left shoulder.
CONSECRATIO, Pyramidal crematorium of four storeys, with 
garlanded base, the door on the second level, the apex
 surmounted by the emperor in a quadriga facing. 

Ref: RCVM 5193, RSC 164a, RIC 436 (M. Aurelius)

Notes: The crematorium built by Antoninus Pius had already 
appeared two decades before on the posthumous coinage of
 his wife, Faustina Senior. Its remains have been
 discovered near the Piazzai Montecitorio, west of the
 Corso, in Regio IX (cf. Hill, "The Monuments of Ancient
 Rome as Coin Types", P. 102) The similar structure 
featured in AD 169 and 176 on the coinages of Divus Lucius
 Verus and Diva Faustina Junior may represent this same
 building, thought seems more likely that these depictions
 are of the crematorium of Marcus Aurelius which was later
 to appear on his own posthumous coinage issued under
 Commodus.

Contributed by Peter Dearing, August 2009