Late Roman, AD 330 - 335, marble sarcophagus depicting the four seasons at Dumbarton Oaks.
I was pleased to add an unusual quadrans to my collection - it is not a type that one stumbles on every day. Prof. Johan van Heesch University of Leuven & Louvain-la-Neuve who was head of the Coin Cabinet of the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) until he retired in 2021, and a specialist in Roman Roman numismatics and the monetary history of Rome, wrote in his 1979 MA-thesis on the semis and quadrans wrote about these coins:
"The depiction of the four seasons on these anonymous coins is quite remarkable. Firstly, because the youths representing the seasons are generally shown in full, and images with only busts of these figures are extremely rare, unknown on coins and mesaillions other than the series discussed here. Secondly, because this is the first time the four seasons have been depicted on coins. Until now, it was believed that this depiction only appeared on coins under Commodus, but this anonymous series was minted under Antoninus Pius. On medallions, we already find the four seasons under Hadrian and Antoninus Pius.
On coins and medallions, apart from this series, they are always represented as a group of four full-figure youths with attributes that are often difficult to identify due to the small size of the depictions. Almost always, these images are accompanied by the inscription "temporum felicitas"; the four seasons symbolize a golden age."
-John von Heesch, 1979 MA Thesis
Anonymous issues. temp. Hadrian–Antoninus Pius, AD 117-161. Æ Quadrans (17mm, 2.57g). Rome mint.
Obv: Draped bust of the personification of Summer as a youthful child, right, wearing a wreath and necklace of ripened grain
Rev: S • C within wreath or ripe grain
Ref: RIC II p. 219, 34 & 35; Van Heesch 2, pl. XXV, 8.
The four coins
Winter, dressed warmer than the others, wears a cloth on his head with a reed crown;
Spring has a garland of flowers;
Summer has ears of grain
Autumn has grapevines and leaves
This interpretation is supported by hundreds of reliefs, frescoes, and mosaics brought together by Hanfmann in his extensive study on representations of the four seasons and the sarcophagus shown as the opening image of this post from the Dumbarton Oaks Museum.
Annius Verus?
Henry Cohen (Description Historique des Monnaies Frappées sous L'Empire Romain, VIII, #31) identifies the portrait on one of this series, with some doubt, as that of the son of Marcus Aurelius & Faustina II, Annius Verus. Dušanić (The Numismatist, 1978), thought it could represent a river god. Both seem unlikely with the context of additional coins unknown to these authors.
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