PATRES SENATVS

Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust of Pupienus right, seen from three quarters back.

Two clasped hands.

Photo of a coin sld the 20/09/2006 by Classical Numismatic Group, Electronic Auction 148, lot 396, link to the sale: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=321911, link to their website: https://www.cngcoins.com/.

I observe that on most of Pupienus' coins the cuirass is almost invisible and the shoulder appears smooth. Although I have listed a variant with a non-cuirassed bust for other emperors from the same period, this bust of Pupienus seems to be cuirassed. We see streaks indicating a cuirass in the lower shoulder or at least an irregular lower shoulder showing a desire to display a cuirass. Here is an example:

 On this photo the streaks are visible at the bottom of the shoulder.  

However, we cannot exclude that only draped busts exist. So far, I haven't noticed an example where the shoulder is undoubtedly smooth.

Unlike the AMOR MVTVS AVGG type, the IMP CAES M CLOD PVPIENVS AVG legend is much rarer than the IMP CAES PVPIEN MAXIMVS AVG legend on this type CARITAS MVTVA AVGG.

It is very likely that the copies contain duplicates. Indeed, I did not compare each coin with all the others to know if it was resold later. By way of comparison, the same case for the type AMOR MVTVVS AVGG gives a ratio of 35/65, I did not note a rarer legend than the other. It therefore appears that statistically the legend IMP CAES PVPIEN MAXIMVS AVG is indeed much rarer. The CONCORDIA AVGG type is excluded from the board, too few analyzable copies (see AYC comments # 6 and # 7).

Conclusion of this quick study: it seems that the legend IMP CAES M CLOD PVPIENVS AVG is rarer, especially for the type CARITAS MVTVA AVGG.