FAUSTA, Wife of Constantine I
AD 324-326
AE3. 3.29g, 19.2mm
MINTED: Trier mint, AD 326
REF: RIC VII Trier 484
OBVERSE: FLAV MAX-FAVSTA AVG, draped bust right, wearing a pearl necklace, hair styled in waves coiled at back of the neck.
REVERSE: SPES REIP-VBLICAE, Spes standing facing, looking left, holding two children to her bosom; PT[R• in crescent] in exergue.

Notes:
Somewhat weathered brown patina and a minor flan crack, but well-centered and with nice underlying details. 
 
Historical Notes:
Fausta was the daughter of emperor Maximian and the wife of Constantine the Great, who proclaimed her Augusta when he became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire in 324. Just two years later, he had Fausta put to death by having her locked in a bath filled with boiling water. Her crime may have been an affair with her stepson, Crispus, or possibly the uncovering of a false accusation of rape she made against Crispus that had led to Constantine wrongly executing his own eldest son for treason. After her death, Constantine enacted a damnatio memoriae on Fausta, one which her own sons Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans did not see fit to lift when they became emperors after the death of Constantine.