Elagabalus Silver Antoninianus, RIC IV Elagabalus 94e

Monetary Context and the Severan Antoninianus

The antoninianus was introduced into the Roman imperial currency system in early AD 215 by Caracalla. While ancient sources do not preserve the official Latin name of the denomination, modern numismatists designate it by Caracalla's official name, Antoninus. Valued in daily accounting as a double denarius, the coin possessed an immediate structural problem: its physical weight and intrinsic silver content did not equal two standard denarii. Instead, the denomination weighed approximately five grams compared to the contemporary denarius standard of about three and a quarter grams, and its silver fineness hovered between forty and fifty percent. This disparity yielded an intrinsic silver overvaluation of roughly twenty-five to thirty percent, creating substantial seigniorage profits for the imperial fiscus while inducing inflationary pressures across civilian markets. Following Caracalla's death and the brief interlude of Macrinus, Elagabalus maintained antoninianus production during the opening years of his reign from AD 218. However, public acceptance remained mixed, and the silver denarius continued to serve as the undisputed principal workhorse of Mediterranean retail commerce and military remuneration. The mint at Rome struck both denominations concurrently during the early phase of the reign, but the production of the radiate double piece progressively diminished. By approximately AD 219 or AD 220, the imperial mint ceased striking antoniniani altogether, concentrating output almost entirely on traditional denarii, aurei, and bronze denominations. Consequently, issues like RIC IV Elagabalus 94e capture a crucial transitional moment in Severan monetary policy, shortly before the radiate denomination lapsed until its dramatic revival under Pupienus, Balbinus, and Gordian III in AD 238.

Production Standards and Mint Organization

RIC IV Elagabalus 94e was produced by the primary imperial mint operating in the city of Rome. Although subsidiary eastern facilities at Antioch and other auxiliary centers struck silver during the initial phase of the reign while the young emperor was journeying west from Syria, the precise stylistic execution and die engraving of this issue firmly identify it as a product of the central capital. The Rome mint was organized into specialized workshops, or officinae, which shared the workload of producing regular precious metal coinages for distribution across the empire. Production followed standard Greco-Roman manual striking practices. Blank planchets were cast in spherical molds or flattened strips, prepared in batch melts of alloyed billon silver, and brought to the dies while heated to ensure sharp relief. The standard target weight for antoniniani under Elagabalus clustered around 4.8 to 5.2 grams, with recorded specimens occasionally dispersing between 4.2 and 5.6 grams due to minting al marco, where a fixed number of planchets were struck from a specific pound of alloy rather than weighing every blank individually. The module typically measures between 21 and 23 millimeters in diameter. Metallurgical analyses of Severan silver demonstrate that the silver content of the early Elagabalus antoniniani averaged roughly forty to forty-five percent silver, with the remainder composed of copper and small trace impurities of lead, tin, and gold.

Obverse Portraiture and Regal Iconography

The obverse of RIC IV Elagabalus 94e presents a right-facing bust of the emperor wearing a radiate crown, draped in the military paludamentum or civilian mantle. Within the conventions of the imperial coinage, the radiate crown functioned as the defining visual determinant of a double denomination in silver and brass, contrasting directly with the laureate wreath reserved for the single denarius and the sestertius. In theological and political ideology, the solar rays also evoked Sol and Helios, associating the young ruler with solar divinity and eternal renewal. The portrait style on this variety captures Elagabalus in his early youth, showing soft facial contours, an unblemished jawline, and tight, orderly curls characteristic of the Rome mint's Severan engravers. The specific catalogued variant 94e is distinguished strictly by its drapery: unlike sub-varieties featuring cuirassed busts, cuirassed and draped forms, or bare necks, the bust on 94e is exclusively draped viewed from behind or sideways. The engraving demonstrates the refined classicism maintained by the capital's die cutters, avoiding the idiosyncratic provincial traits often found on contemporary Syrian issues.

Reverse Iconography of Laetitia

The reverse displays Laetitia, the Roman divine personification of joyful celebration and public gladness. She is depicted standing draped, facing toward the left. In her right hand, extended forward, she elevates a woven laurel or floral wreath, an emblem of victory, festival, and communal festivity. In her lowered left hand, she holds an upright ship rudder that rests firmly upon a celestial or terrestrial globe placed beside her feet. The juxtaposition of the rudder and globe with the celebratory wreath conveys a complex ideological synthesis common to imperial propaganda. While the wreath offers immediate joy and goodwill to the Roman citizenry, the rudder and globe denote divine guidance over the known world. By placing the instrument of nautical steering upon the globe, the composition proclaims that the Roman Empire and the newly installed Severan dynasty guide the destiny of human civilization with stability and benign benevolence. This type was deliberately employed to reassure civilian populations and Senate elites after the violent civil conflict that unseated Macrinus in AD 218.

Inscriptions and Epigraphic Analysis

The obverse inscription reads IMP ANTONINVS AVG, an abbreviated Latin formula expanding to Imperator Antoninus Augustus. By eschewing the historical birth name Varius Avitus Bassianus, the imperial regime explicitly adopted the Antonine nomenclature to anchor the young ruler's political legitimacy in the lineage of Caracalla and Septimius Severus. The title Imperator opens the legend as a praenomen, asserting supreme military command, while Augustus confers sovereign imperial dignity. This relatively concise legend format was widely used on silver strikings at Rome during the opening years of the principate, preceding the longer, more elaborately titulary formulas adopted on later dated issues. The reverse inscription reads LAETITIA PVBL, an abbreviation for Laetitia Publica, meaning 'Public Joy' or 'The Happiness of the People.' Rendered in clean, well-spaced Roman capital letters, the legend directly interprets the allegorical scene for literate users. The abbreviated form PVBL was standard on mid-sized flans where space limitations along the inner rim precluded the full spelling PVBLICA, balancing aesthetic symmetry with epigraphic clarity.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard reference corpus The Roman Imperial Coinage, volume IV, part II, Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham classified the undated Laetitia Publica issues under catalog number 94. Because multiple bust configurations were paired with the identical reverse die theme, sub-letters designate particular bust treatments: 94e is reserved exclusively for the radiate, draped bust facing right. Neighboring entries distinguish busts that are radiate and cuirassed, or radiate, draped, and cuirassed, as well as variations facing left or featuring slightly differentiated titulature. Chronologically, this issue belongs to the first half of the reign of Elagabalus, circa AD 218 to 219. Although the catalog scope covers the entire reign from AD 218 to 222, numismatic hoard evidence and die studies confirm that the production of antoniniani at the Rome mint halted early. Dated tribunician issues of the antoninianus cease after TR P II (AD 219), demonstrating that types bearing undated legends like IMP ANTONINVS AVG were produced during this same initial administrative window. When the mint resumed massive silver production in subsequent years, it struck denarii to the total exclusion of the radiate denomination.

Circulation, Hoard Presence, and Afterlife

Because the antoniniani of Elagabalus were struck for only two years, their absolute volume of production was substantially lower than the vast antoninianus strikings of Caracalla or the later issues of the mid-third century. Nevertheless, these coins circulated actively alongside existing Severan denarii throughout the Roman provinces. Hoard evidence from Britain, Gaul, the Rhine frontier, and the Danubian provinces reveals that antoniniani of Caracalla, Macrinus, and Elagabalus were frequently stored together in military and civilian deposits, indicating that they circulated according to their statutory value rather than being systematically sorted by fineness in early decades. Over the course of the AD 220s and 230s, the cessation of new radiate minting caused these pieces to gradually thin out within circulation through natural loss, hoarding, and remelting. When the antoninianus was re-established under Balbinus, Pupienus, and Gordian III in AD 238, the weight and silver standards were further debased, which encouraged the hoarding of earlier, heavier Severan radiate pieces in accordance with Gresham's Law. Consequently, specimens of RIC IV Elagabalus 94e frequently survived within third-century savings hoards concealed during the military crises of the AD 250s and 260s.

References

1. The Antoninianus: A Monetary Revolution in the Third Century AD. pp. 145-170
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. 535-538
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Elagabalus 94e. Type ric.4.el.94e
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. p. 34, no. 94e