Elagabalus Gold Aureus RIC IV Elagabalus 9d

Monetary Context and Imperial Donatives

During the Severan dynasty, the gold aureus functioned primarily as a high-value store of wealth, a mechanism for elite gifting, and the primary vehicle for extraordinary imperial payouts known as congiaria or liberalitates. While the base silver denarius and antoninianus experienced progressive debasement throughout the late second and early third centuries AD, the gold denomination maintained an exceptionally high degree of metallurgical fineness, typically exceeding ninety-five percent purity. Under Elagabalus, who arrived in Rome in the summer of 219 AD following his accession in the East in 218 AD, securing the loyalty of the city plebs and the Praetorian Guard required immediate and substantial imperial benefactions. The issue catalogued as RIC IV Elagabalus 9d commemorates the emperor's second distribution of largesse (Liberalitas II). In Roman imperial administration, a congiarium was an imperial cash gift bestowed directly upon the qualifying civilian populace of Rome, often distributed per capita in the presence of the emperor or his designated magistrates. Although the actual funds disbursed to the populace consisted predominantly of silver denarii and bronze denominations, gold aurei bearing elaborate commemorative scenes were struck alongside them. These aurei were distributed to high-ranking officials, military commanders, and senators as commemorative presentations, serving as enduring numismatic monuments of the princeps's public munificence and financial solvency.

Production and Rome Mint Operations

The entire series comprising RIC IV Elagabalus 9 was produced at the central imperial mint in Rome. Production of gold coinage in 219 AD operated under stringent state oversight within the imperial palace or nearby administrative workshops, utilizing refined bullion reserves under the direct supervision of the procurator monetae. Die cutters at the capital were the most skilled artisans in the empire, tasked with executing complex multi-figure narrative compositions within the constrained circular field of an aureus die measuring approximately nineteen to twenty-one millimeters in diameter. The striking of these gold flans followed rigorous quality control. Flans were cast in individual molds or clipped from carefully measured cast ingots, then brought to a semi-molten or annealed state prior to striking by manual sledgehammer between upper and lower dies. Surviving Severan aurei generally cluster around an average weight standard of 6.5 grams, having drifted slightly lower from the earlier Caracallan mean of roughly 7.2 to 7.3 grams. The high relief of the portrait and the detailed multi-level architecture of the reverse scene required substantial striking pressure, frequently executed with a fixed or aligned die axis close to twelve o'clock or six o'clock, typical of the Rome mint in this period.

Obverse Iconography and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC IV Elagabalus 9d presents a right-facing bust of the youthful ruler, explicitly identified by his official imperial styling as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. The subtype 9d is specifically defined within the corpus by its complete triumphal regalia: the emperor is portrayed laureate, draped, and cuirassed. The laurel wreath rests upon neatly arranged rows of short curls, with its tie ribbons trailing down across the nape of the neck. The drapery (paludamentum) is gathered across the shoulders over a molded military cuirass, representing an ideological synthesis of civic authority and martial command. In 219 AD, Elagabalus was approximately fifteen years of age. Rome mint die engravers, working to legitimize his claim of being the natural son of Caracalla, initially rendered his features with youthful vitality while softening the severe, hyper-militaristic grimace characteristic of Caracalla's late portraiture. The features on 9d include a smooth jawline, straight nose, and large, wide eyes, conveying aristocratic poise and youthful continuity for the renewed Antonine line.

Reverse Iconography: The Liberalitas Tableau

The reverse of RIC IV Elagabalus 9d is a complex compositional scene depicting the ceremony of imperial distribution. The central architectural element is a raised wooden platform or suggestum, rendered in stepped perspective. Upon this platform, Elagabalus sits togate upon a sella curulis (curule chair) facing left, holding a short parazonium or sceptre in his right hand. Before him stands Liberalitas, the divine personification of imperial generosity, draped in stola and peplos, facing left while holding an abacus (a notched counting board used to apportion coin tokens) in her right hand and an overflowing cornucopiae in her left arm. At the foot of the platform on the far left, a togatus representing the Roman citizenry ascends the platform steps with outstretched arms or holding the fold of his toga (sinus) to receive the imperial bounty. This detailed multi-figure arrangement was a well-established artistic convention of imperial public distributions dating back to Trajan and Antoninus Pius. On a coin flan of roughly twenty millimeters, the die sinker achieved a remarkable sense of spatial depth, balancing the elevated imperial personage against the civic recipient to reinforce the paternal social compact between the emperor and the Roman plebs.

Epigraphy and Titular Formulae

The legends on RIC IV Elagabalus 9d are engraved in clear, classical capital letters along the outer margins of the coin fields. The obverse legend reads IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG. This legend employs the standard imperial nomenclature assumed upon his elevation, presenting the praenomen imperatoris (IMP), the revered Antonine name (ANTONINVS), the traditional moral epithet of family devotion (PIVS), and the supreme title of Augustus (AVG). Noticeably absent are any public epigraphic references to his Syrian heritage or the sun-god Elagabal, reflecting the strict orthodox conventions maintained by the capital's administrative establishment during the initial months following his arrival in Rome. The reverse inscription is divided into two operational segments: P M TR P II COS II P P, arranged around the upper and lateral perimeters, and LIB AVG II, inscribed in the lower field or exergue. The main legend records the full array of high offices held by the princeps: Pontifex Maximus (chief priest), Tribunicia Potestate for the second time, Consul for the second time, and Pater Patriae (Father of the Fatherland). The secondary formula, LIB AVG II, abbreviates Liberalitas Augusti II, identifying the scene explicitly as the commemoration of the second general imperial donative.

Typology and Chronological Classification

The chronological placement of RIC IV Elagabalus 9d is fixed securely to the year 219 AD by the dual epigraphic markers of TR P II (Tribunician Power, second tenure) and COS II (Consul, second term). Elagabalus entered his second consulship on January 1, 219 AD, alongside Quintus Tineius Sacerdos, and assumed his second tribunician renewal in late 218 or early 219 AD. Historical accounts place the emperor's formal adventus into the city of Rome in mid-219 AD, indicating that this second congiarium was distributed either to mark his solemn entry into the capital or to celebrate his ongoing consolidation of imperial power. Within the numismatic taxonomy established in Roman Imperial Coinage, type 9 is differentiated into several alphabetical sub-varieties based exclusively on the bust truncation and drapery of the obverse portrait. While varieties such as 9a, 9b, and 9c feature laureate head alone, laureate and draped bust, or alternate draping arrangements, variety 9d designates the specific combination of laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust facing right. The type is closely linked chronologically to silver denarii and bronze sestertii carrying the same reverse legends and allegorical scene, which formed the broader multi-metallic donative emission of that year.

Circulation, Hoard Context, and Preservation

Because aurei of this issue represented immense purchasing power equivalent to twenty-five silver denarii or one hundred brass sestertii, they did not pass frequently from hand to hand in routine daily retail commerce. Instead, ceremonial donative aurei were typically preserved by elite recipients as prestige items, converted into high-denomination savings, or melted down for bullion during subsequent economic crises. Consequently, specimens surviving in modern collections rarely exhibit the deep, smoothing wear typical of circulating base-metal coinage, but instead preserve crisp die details unless clipped or mounted in jewelry. Hoard evidence from the western and Danubian provinces demonstrates that Severan gold coin hoards, such as those discovered in Britain, Gaul, and the Rhine frontier, were often assembled over multiple decades as family wealth reserves or military savings. However, aurei of Elagabalus from the Rome mint are consistently far less numerous in archaeological contexts than the prolific gold coinages of Septimius Severus or Caracalla. This relative scarcity reflects the brief duration of Elagabalus's reign (218 to 222 AD) and the specific nature of this issue as a targeted ceremonial emission struck during a single calendar year.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. 535-536
2. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. pp. 28-29, no. 9d
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Elagabalus 9d. ric.4.el.9d
4. The Handbook of Roman Imperial Coins. Elagabalus Gold Coinage