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 09/01/2007 by Classical Numismatic Group, Triton X, lot 711, link to the sale: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=351448, link to their website: https://www.cngcoins.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.

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.