Ancient Rome Manlia Scantilla (Fakes are possible) 193AD

Manlia Scantilla was wife and co-regent of Didius Julianus, who was emperor of Rome for just nine weeks in the year 193 A.D, a reign stretching no longer than from late March to early June. Manlia Scantilla enjoyed the honorary title of Augusta, found as an abbreviation at the end of the inscription on requester Brian's coin: 'MANL SCAN-TILLA AVG'. The reverse of all coin types shows the goddess Juno, standing with a scepter, holding a patera (a small plate) over a peacock.

In his capacity as emperor, Didius Julianus reduced the purity of the denarius, the circulating silver coin of the time. This created massive public anger, since it meant that Didius could take in old coins, re-melt them, and send new, lighter coins into circulation, keeping a bit of silver for his own coffers for each coin remade in this way.

This means that even though the co-regency of Didius and Scantilla was extremely short, a small amount of coins were still produced to satisfy Didius' greed, and they are far from impossible to find for sale. They remain valuable however, especially in better condition as listed below:

COPPER OR BRONZE:
worn: $250 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $700
well preserved: $1800

SILVER:
worn: $350
average circulated: $1200
well preserved: $6000

GOLD: worn: $15,000
average circulated: $50,000
well preserved: $100,000

The coin in our main picture (upper left) comes from Stack's Bowers Galleries. It is a genuine bronze sestertius (16.8 grams) and sold for $650 in a 2013 auction. As always, CoinQuest is grateful to Stack's Bowers for use of their coin photo.

There are many, many counterfeits, tourist fakes, and museum quality replicas of these coins out there. If you believe you might have a genuine coin, and you have pictures to send, you are very welcome to use the Contact link found on the main page of CoinQuest to start an email exchange with us. We can then evaluate your specific coin and hopefully determine its authenticity.

Remember to read our Important Terminology page found at the top left in order to properly interpret these catalog values.
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