VICTORIA AVGG

Radiate, 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 20/11/2000 by Numismatik Lanz München, Auction 100, lot 236, link to the sale: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=74221, link to their website: https://www.lanz.com/.

For the sestertius with reverse VICTORIA AVGG, le RIC 4B note page 175 pour le n°23: ''C.38 should probably read 'Victory standing and facing, head left..' hence a number of minor variants have been recorded.''. I had made a hypothesis concerning the aureus noted Cohen 37, which in my opinion could be an error of description, we see that the n° 38 and 39 also seem badly described. This confirms a probable error concerning the n° 37. See comments on AYC #18 and 19.

So far I have only identified one obverse die and one reverse die. This coin therefore shares the same dies as the copy preserved at the British museum, Museum number R.16583, link to the coin: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-16583. This obverse die is also used for the VOTIS DECENNALIBVS type which also seems to be the only die used.

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.