Hadrian - PATIENTIA exceedingly rare (AU1709)

Hadrian. (117-138 AD). Silver denarius (3.54 gm,18,5 mm). Rome, 128-129 AD. HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS P P, head laureate right / PATIENTIA AVGVSTI around, COS III in exergue, Patientia seated left, extending right hand and holding scepter in left. BMCRE 525, pl. 57.9 (same reverse die). Cohen 1010 (Paris, 20 Fr.). RIC 365 (Rare). Extremely rare.  very fine. The Reka Devnia hoard contained two specimens of this type, one like ours and one with a draped bust. Strack 202 records the two Reka Devnia coins in Sofia, BMCRE 525, two specimens in Paris, and only three others: Gnecchi Collection, L.A. Lawrence, and Ball VI, 1932, lot 1355. This is the sole appearance of the personification Patientia on Roman coins. Apparently her name was not well received, because it was very soon changed to INDVLGENTIA AVG, and with the new name the identical type, seated female figure extending right hand and holding scepter, was struck in substantial quantity. As Strack and Mattingly suggested, the sense of the Patientia type, since it was soon to be renamed Indulgentia, may have been "endurance of other people's troubles rather than one's own" (BMCRE III, p. cxli).