Elagabalus: Silver denarius Coinage

Coinage Scope and Selected Issues

The Silver denarius coinage issued in the name of Elagabalus includes issues distinguished by their portraits, inscriptions, reverse designs and mint attribution. This study concentrates on the Abundantia issues of Rome, rather than presenting one design as the entire denomination.

The issue dates and detailed iconographic descriptions below apply to the discussed groups, not automatically to every coin bearing the ruler's name. Other types and mints require their own catalogue comparison. An individual gallery coin must be assessed from its own inscriptions and institutional record; its measurements and provenance do not define the whole coinage.

Historical Context

The reign of Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, known to modern history as Elagabalus (reigned 218-222 CE), was established through a military coup organized in Syria by the women of the Severan dynasty, led by his grandmother Julia Maesa. Following the assassination of Caracalla in 217 CE and the brief reign of Macrinus, Severan partisans presented the fourteen-year-old youth as Caracalla's illegitimate son and rightful heir. Upon his accession, he adopted the formal dynastic name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, intentionally projecting legitimacy through continuous Antonine and Severan nomenclature.

While ancient literary traditions dwell heavily on religious scandal and the imperial promotion of the Emesan sun god El-Gabal, the monetary policy of the central mint in Rome preserved established institutional conventions. The radiate double denarius (antoninianus), introduced by Caracalla, ceased regular production around 219 CE, restoring the silver denarius as the primary silver denomination for civic commerce and military stipends. The silver content cannot be established for an individual specimen from its appearance alone. The undated series struck at Rome between c. 220 and 222 CE emphasized conventional civic blessings and dynastic stability. The Abundantia type directly invoked imperial generosity and the secure provisioning of the capital amidst escalating political tension within the imperial family.

Selected Issues: Obverse Iconographic Composition

The obverse displays a right-facing portrait of the young emperor, depicting him either beardless or with faint youthful side-whiskers. He is crowned with an imperial laurel wreath tied at the back of the head, the two ribbon ends trailing down toward the neck. The portrait exhibits the rounded facial contours typical of his early majority before the close of his reign.

In standard mint production, the portrait appears in two primary drapery treatments: as a bare-necked laureate head truncated at the base, or as a laureate bust showing drapery over the shoulder, often representing the folds of the military paludamentum. Crucially, this civilian emission lacks the liturgical horn, often interpreted as a bull's phallus or symbol of divine consecration, which became prominent on the emperor's late sacerdotal and sacrificial coinages struck between late 221 and 222 CE.

Selected Issues: Obverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The obverse inscription encircles the portrait clockwise, struck in formal Latin monumental epigraphy within a fine outer beaded border:

• Original Lettering: IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG
• Expansion: Imperator Antoninus Pius Augustus
• English Translation: "Emperor Antoninus, Pious, Augustus"

The legend begins at the lower left perimeter (approximately 7 o'clock) and runs continuously without breaks to the lower right (approximately 5 o'clock). This simplified titular formula replaced the extensive genealogical and magistral titulature used during the first two years of the reign, serving as the standard obverse formula for the central mint from late 219 or 220 CE until the emperor's death in 222 CE.

Selected Issues: Reverse Iconographic Composition

The reverse features the standing personification of Abundantia turned toward the left. She is clothed in traditional classical attire, wearing a long stola or chiton that drapes to her feet. Held across her midsection with both hands, an overflowing cornucopia is tilted downward, emptying agricultural bounty (variously interpreted as grain ears or seasonal fruits) toward the ground.

Set within the open field, most frequently in the right field behind her figure though occasionally in the left field, is an isolated eight-pointed star. This celestial device serves as the primary visual marker linking traditional Roman personifications of state welfare to the overarching cosmic and solar protection claimed by the Severan administration.

Selected Issues: Reverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The reverse inscription is executed in monumental capital lettering following the upper perimeter of the coin:

• Original Lettering: ABVNDANTIA AVG
• Expansion: Abundantia Augusti
• English Translation: "The Abundance of the Augustus"

The legend begins at approximately the 8 o'clock position and concludes near 4 o'clock. Modern museum transcriptions occasionally record the spelling as ABVNDANTIA AUG, but ancient die engraving consistently preserves the classical epigraphic 'V' for the vowel. The legend explicitly attributes material prosperity and the bountiful supply of resources directly to the virtue and providence of the ruling princeps.

Typology and Documented Variants

The undated Abundantia denarii produced at Rome are organized in modern numismatic typologies based on portrait truncation and the placement of the field mark:

• Laureate Head Subtype (RIC IV.2 56a): Features an undraped laureate head right. On the reverse, Abundantia stands left emptying a cornucopia, accompanied by a star in the field (ordinarily in the right field, rarely in the left).
• Laureate and Draped Bust Subtype (RIC IV.2 56b): Displays a laureate bust right with distinct drapery visible across the shoulder and neck truncation, paired with the identical reverse device.
• Field Star Position Variants: Henry Cohen and David Sear document variations in the celestial mark, cataloguing specimens with the star placed in the right field (the predominant form) and scarcer varieties with the star placed in the left field. Sporadic examples omitting the star entirely are recorded in older references, though these may represent transitional dies or engraver omissions.

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

Numismatic scholarship on this series focuses on three primary areas of discussion:

1. Symbolic Meaning of the Star: The presence of an isolated star across vast series of Elagabalus's coinage from c. 220-222 CE has generated substantial debate. Harold Mattingly and Martijn Icks regard the star as an explicit ideological emblem of the Emesan sun god El-Gabal, signifying solar oversight over the Roman state. The position of the star deserves die-by-die study; observations about other reverse types should not be transferred automatically to Abundantia coins. Conversely, earlier scholars suggested the star functioned merely as an administrative workshop mark or emission control symbol, though the lack of corresponding differentiated symbols across parallel officinae weakens a strictly administrative reading.

2. Iconographic Distinction from Annona: Cataloguers note close thematic overlap between Abundantia and Annona. While Annona specifically personified the state-controlled grain supply of Rome (annona urbis) and typically appeared with a corn-measure (modius) or ship's prow, Abundantia represented universal agricultural and material abundance. Emptying the cornucopia horizontally is diagnostic of Abundantia, yet ancient viewers likely appreciated both motifs as part of a single ideological message of civic food security.

3. Portrait Typology Classification: Distinguishing between the undraped head (RIC 56a) and the draped bust (RIC 56b) can be subjective in practical numismatic examination. Dies displaying minimal traces of drapery at the base of the neck truncation are frequently misidentified or classified inconsistently across institutional collections, leading some researchers to treat the two forms as minor workshop variations of an undivided emission.

References

1. The Roman Imperial Coinage. Vol. IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus (AD 217-238). p. 32, no. 56
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum (BMCRE). Vol. V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. ccxiii-ccxiv, 559-560, nos. 189-193
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE): ric.4.el.56b. Types ric.4.el.56a and ric.4.el.56b
4. Roman Coins and Their Values, Volume II: The Accession of Nerva to the Overthrow of the Severan Dynasty, AD 96-235. p. 586, no. 7501
5. Description historique des monnaies frappées sous l'Empire romain, Tome IV. p. 324, no. 1
6. The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome's Decadent Boy Emperor. pp. 11-25, 60-68