VICTORIA AVGG

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

Victoria standing left, holding a crown with the right hand and palm with the left hand.

Photo of a coin sold the 14/05/2014 by Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 96, lot 836, link to the sale: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1956873, link to their website: https://www.cngcoins.com/.

The only difference with AYC #18, RIC 8 is Victoria's position on the reverse. On the AYC #18, RIC 8 she is described as walking left while she is facing on AYC  AYC #19, RIC - . This frontal position corresponds to the description of aureus 8A from RIC 4B, page 174, the source of which is Cohen quoting Caylus. This aureus is described with the obverse legend IMP CAES M CLOD PVPIENVS AVG. I'm starting to think that it may be an error in the description of Caylus' coin as aureus when it was perhaps a denarius or rather a sestertius because of the obverse legend. This is the reason why I did not list this aureus for Pupienus. I add that for the sestertius with reverse VICTORIA AVGG, the RIC 4B note page 175 for the n°23: ''C.38 should probably read 'Victory standing and facing, head left..' hence a number of minor variants have been recorded.''. We see that the n° 38 and 39 also seem badly described. This confirms a probable error concerning the n° 37. 

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.