Achaia, Aigion
Faustina Junior. Augusta 147-175 CE
Struck under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus
Æ Assarion 22mm, 5.50g, 6h
Draped bust right /
Aphrodite, nude, standing facing, head right, drawing veil from face and covering herself with her right hand; to right, dolphin swimming downward.
Kroll 33.1 (this coin), RPC IV.1 Online 8104.1 (this coin), BCD Peloponnesos 449 (this coin), NCP, pl. R. XXIII (this coin)
Ex Kelly Ramage Collection
Ex BCD Collection (LHS 96, 8 May 2006), lot 449
Ex Ernest Griolet Collection (1819-1908)
Pausanias wrote about Aigion:
By the sea at Aegium is a sanctuary of Aphrodite, and after it one of Poseidon; there is also one of the Kore, daughter of Demeter, and one to Zeus Homagyrius. Here are images of Zeus, of Aphrodite and of Athena.
Given the dolphin at her feet, I believe it’s likely that this is an image of the Aphrodite in the temple, which was by the sea. Imhoof-Blumer & Gardner also attribute this coin to the passage, and this is the plate coin for the work. In fact, it’s also the plate coin for Kroll’s work on Aigion and was in the BCD LHS sale. The furthest provenance for it was the Griolet connection. Ernest Griolet was the namesake for the Griolet Lighthouse in Switzerland, built to provide a light to hikers seeking to reach the summit in a fog.