Elagabalus Silver Denarius, RIC IV Elagabalus 59

Monetary and Political Context

The accession of Varius Avitus Bassianus, celebrated as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and remembered as Elagabalus, in AD 218 restored the Severan lineage through his grandmother Julia Maesa, who asserted his paternity as the son of Caracalla. In the imperial monetary economy, the denarius remained the primary transactional coin and accounting unit, even though Caracalla had introduced the double denarius or antoninianus in AD 215. Under Elagabalus, production of the antoninianus declined sharply and eventually ceased, leaving the traditional denarius as the dominant silver denomination issued from the capital. The monetary system of the early third century AD operated under persistent fiscal strain. Decades of increased military stipends, donatives, and administrative overheads had forced recurrent reductions in the intrinsic quality of silver coinage. Under Septimius Severus and Caracalla, denarius fineness had fallen to roughly fifty percent or lower. Under Elagabalus, the silver standard stabilized near forty to forty-five percent purity, with typical theoretical weights established in the range of 3.0 to 3.2 grams. Coins of type RIC IV Elagabalus 59 were issued within this debased metallic regime, serving as vital tools for distributing imperial wages, sustaining government expenditures, and maintaining ideological fidelity among the army and the urban populace of Rome.

Mint Organization and Production

RIC IV Elagabalus 59 was struck at the central imperial mint in Rome, which operated through multiple designated officinae or workshop divisions. Although individual workshop marks were not generally engraved on denarii of this period, stylistic analysis and die studies demonstrate coordinated batch production across several teams of die-sinkers. Parallel issues bearing identical imperial obverses were paired with diverse reverse personifications to fulfill regular production quotas. Flans were cast in molds before striking, leading to slight irregularities in blank thickness, shape, and edge contours. Striking was performed manually using hardened iron or bronze dies, with the lower die fixed into an anvil and the upper reverse die held by hand or tongs. Die alignment for Rome under Elagabalus tends toward either an upright or inverted orientation (frequently around 12 or 6 o'clock), though manual striking caused frequent minor deviations. The speed of production necessary to meet imperial administrative disbursements occasionally resulted in off-center strikes, slight mechanical double striking, and die wear, which are widely documented across extant specimens of this type.

Obverse Iconography and Variations

The obverse of RIC IV Elagabalus 59 features the youthful portrait of Elagabalus facing right. In the standard catalogued classification, the bust is laureate and draped, viewed typically from behind or side-on. The laurel wreath rests securely on short, curled hair, representing the standard martial and triumphal crown of the Roman emperor, while the drapery covers the shoulders and chest in classical civic fashion. Because production extended over multiple years, die-engravers rendered the portrait with slight age progression, moving from a boyish, round-faced profile characteristic of AD 218 and 219 toward somewhat more elongated and mature features toward AD 221 and 222. Some dies exhibit slight tailoring in the drapery, occasionally revealing traces of an underlying cuirass at the shoulder, though standard references classify the dominant design simply as laureate and draped. Die-sinker idiosyncratic styles range from finely modeled naturalistic hair curls to flatter, more schematic cuts executed during periods of high mint volume.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse design displays Annona, the personification of the grain supply and the imperial food distribution system, standing draped facing left. In her right hand, extended downward or forward, she holds two ears of corn. Her left arm rests upon a ship's rudder that is supported by a terrestrial globe, and at her feet to the left sits a modius, a standard Roman dry-capacity measure, filled with additional corn ears. Every element of this allegorical ensemble carried precise socio-political resonance in ancient Rome. The grain ears and the modius signaled the grain harvest and the physical distribution of subsidized corn (annona civica) to the citizens of Rome, a key pillar of imperial stability. The rudder referenced the maritime transport routes across the Mediterranean, particularly the vital grain fleets departing Alexandria and Carthage for Ostia and Portus. Resting the rudder on a globe underscored the worldwide authority and reach of the Roman emperor, whose governance sustained the universal order. By invoking Annona Augusti ('the Imperial Provisioning'), the mint affirmed that despite the youth or eccentricities of the ruler, the basic administrative mechanisms ensuring peace and abundance remained functioning under his auspices.

Epigraphy and Legends

The obverse inscription reads IMP ANTONINVS AVG, an abbreviated Latin titulature meaning 'Imperator Antoninus Augustus'. By adopting the name Antoninus, Elagabalus linked his reign directly to Caracalla and Marcus Aurelius, masking his Syrian background behind the most revered dynastic moniker of the era. The legend omits specific iterated consulships, tribunician dates, or the title of Pontifex Maximus, which makes precise internal dating within the AD 218 to 222 window dependent on portrait typology rather than explicit epigraphic markers. The reverse inscription reads ANNONA AVGVSTI, meaning 'The Annona of the Emperor' or 'The Imperial Provisioning'. Rendered in neat capital letters running clockwise along the upper and lateral border of the reverse field, the legend uses standard Roman epigraphic forms. Minor die-cutting variations exist, including differences in letter spacing, letter height, and the exact breaks in the legend around Annona's head and the corn ears, yet the textual formulation remains consistent across all dies of the catalogue type.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard reference framework of Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC), this denarius is indexed as RIC IV Part II Elagabalus 59. Harold Mattingly and Edward Sydenham catalogued the coin among the undated Rome mint denarii struck with the simple obverse legend IMP ANTONINVS AVG. In Henry Cohen's nineteenth-century catalogue, the type corresponds to Cohen 13. Because the legends do not carry tribunician powers (TR P) or consular notations (COS), numismatists establish the emission framework between the initial consolidation of Elagabalus's rule in AD 218 and his assassination in March AD 222. The IMP ANTONINVS AVG legend was utilized extensively throughout his reign, particularly between AD 219 and 221 alongside more elaborate formulations such as IMP CAES M AVR ANTONINVS AVG or IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG. While closely related issues show Annona standing with different secondary attributes or sitting with cornucopiae, type 59 is strictly defined by the standing posture, the ears of corn, the rudder upon a globe, and the modius at her feet.

Circulation, Hoards, and Archaeological Context

Denarii of Elagabalus, including RIC IV 59, entered an active monetary pool composed of a broad mix of Severan coinage, earlier Antonine survivors, and newer issues. Because earlier silver coins of the second century AD possessed higher silver purity, they were gradually extracted through selective hoarding or melting, a phenomenon consistent with Gresham's Law. Coins of Elagabalus, bearing around forty to forty-five percent silver, circulated widely across the western and eastern provinces, appearing consistently in military camp hoards in Britannia and the Rhine-Danube frontier as well as urban and rural deposits in Italy and the Levant. Extant specimens frequently display varying degrees of edge wear, surface abrasions, and flat strike areas indicative of prolonged circulation through the reigns of Severus Alexander and the early Barracks Emperors. The type remained part of the official currency base until the hyperinflationary debasements and mass recoinages of the mid-to-late third century AD, which led to the near-total replacement of the silver denarius by heavily debased radiates.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. 535-538
2. Description historique des monnaies frappées sous l'Empire Romain, Tome IV. p. 324, no. 13
3. Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700. pp. 125-132
4. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Elagabalus 59. ric.4.el.59
5. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. p. 31, no. 59