Elagabalus Silver Denarius RIC IV Elagabalus 91b

Monetary Context and Weight Standards

The issue of RIC IV Elagabalus 91b belongs to the later Severan monetary epoch, a period marked by significant fiscal pressure and gradual metallic debasement. When Elagabalus came to power in AD 218, the Roman imperial treasury faced substantial financial obligations, including lavish imperial accession donatives and increased pay scales for the legionaries initiated under Caracalla. The silver denarius was struck alongside the radiate antoninianus early in the reign, but production of the antoninianus ceased around AD 219, leaving the denarius as the principal silver coin of imperial transactions. During this period, the denarius possessed an average target weight hovering around 3.0 to 3.2 grams, with a silver fineness typically ranging between 40 and 46 percent, balanced by copper. This reduced intrinsic value meant that denarii of the Severan era were fiduciary in nature compared to earlier imperial standards, yet they maintained stable acceptance within the empire due to state backing and compulsory legal tender laws.

Mint of Rome and Manufacturing Techniques

The type RIC IV Elagabalus 91b was produced centrally at the mint of the imperial capital in Rome. By the early third century AD, the Rome mint was organized into specialized administrative sections known as officinae, ensuring continuous coin output for imperial spending, legionary payrolls, and market liquidity. Coin blanks were cast in molds and manually struck with engraved bronze dies while hot or slightly annealed. Dies for denarii of this issue frequently demonstrate careful portrait engraving paired with standard iconographic formulas for religious figures. Die axes were predominantly regulated to six o'clock or twelve o'clock alignments, typical of Severan mint discipline. The physical execution reflects the heavy demands placed on Rome's engravers and minters, occasionally resulting in minor die-clashing, slight striking decentering, or variable flan cracking along the perimeter, all common hallmarks of third-century Roman mass production.

Obverse Portraiture and Dynastic Presentation

The obverse of RIC IV Elagabalus 91b depicts the bust of the young ruler facing right, adorned with a laurel wreath and dressed in drapery across the shoulder. The laurel wreath symbolizes imperial victory and continuous authority, while the drapery indicates civil elegance alongside imperial status. Distinct from neighboring sub-types that include cuirassed armour, catalogued as RIC IV 91a, subtype 91b consistently shows the bust draped without visible breastplate elements. The portraiture renders the adolescent features of the emperor, who was only fourteen years old at his accession. This youthful representation is balanced by formal Severan artistic conventions, including a curled hair profile and delicate facial contours that intentionally mimicked the earlier imperial coinages of Caracalla, reinforcing the claim that Elagabalus was the legitimate son and rightful successor of that popular military emperor.

Reverse Iconography of Jupiter Conservator

The reverse iconography of RIC IV Elagabalus 91b presents Jupiter Conservator, the supreme protector of the Roman state and the imperial throne. The god stands facing left, depicted naked except for a mantle draped behind his back, grasping a thunderbolt in his lowered right hand and holding a tall vertical sceptre in his left. At his feet to the left sits an eagle, the sacred bird and avian symbol of Jovian dominion. Positioned to the right of the scene stands a military standard (signum), adding explicit martial significance to the design. This combination of the state deity, the divine eagle, and the military standard communicated an overt message of religious and army protection. Although modern historical accounts emphasize the personal religious eccentricities of Elagabalus and his devotion to the Emesene sun deity Elagabal, issues like RIC 91b demonstrate that standard Roman religious visual culture continued to dominate imperial propaganda at the capital.

Epigraphy and Legend Readings

The inscriptions on RIC IV Elagabalus 91b are concise and strictly follow third-century Severan formulas. The obverse legend reads IMP ANTONINVS AVG, an abbreviated epigraphic formula for 'Imperator Antoninus Augustus'. The name Antoninus explicitly connected the ruler to the revered Antonine and Severan lineage, bypassing his birth name of Varius Avitus Bassianus. The title Imperator serves as a praenomen denoting supreme military commander, while Augustus confers sovereign imperial dignity. On the reverse, the legend IOVI CONSERVATORI, written in the dative case, translates as 'To Jupiter the Preserver' or 'To Jupiter the Protector'. This dedicatory formula explicitly attributes the stability of the emperor and the empire to the continued guardianship of Jupiter, invoking his supreme patronage over the ruler and the armed forces.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard reference catalog The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume IV, Part II, Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham classified the undated IOVI CONSERVATORI denarii under number 91, distinguishing two specific drapery variants: 91a with a cuirassed bust, and 91b with a draped bust. Because the coin lacks consular (COS) or tribunician (TR P) iteration numbers in its legends, precise internal dating within the AD 218 to 222 window relies on stylistic analysis and hoard contexts. Early in the reign, imperial coinage at Rome drew heavily on well-established Severan reverse types to project continuity and stability. The IOVI CONSERVATORI reverse type was struck during the initial phase of the reign, AD 218 to 219, and may have continued in parallel with subsequent issues before the heavy influx of solar cult reverse themes later in the principate. Typologically, RIC 91b remains a distinct catalogue unit due to its exact pairing of the draped-only obverse bust with the eagle and standard attributes of the reverse.

Circulation, Hoard Contexts, and Archaeological Recovery

Denarii of type RIC IV Elagabalus 91b entered wide circulation immediately upon manufacture, moving from Rome through administrative distributions to provincial treasuries, urban markets, and frontier army garrisons. Archaeological evidence from major third-century hoards across Britain, the Rhine-Danube limes, and the Near East reveals that denarii of Elagabalus circulated alongside surviving Antonine issues, earlier Severan pieces, and subsequent coinage of Severus Alexander. Because Severan denarii maintained a consistent metallic composition from AD 197 through the mid-230s, this issue was not aggressively melted or culled under Gresham's Law until the deeper debasements of the mid-third century under Decius, Trebonianus Gallus, and Valerian. Wear patterns on recovered specimens range from lightly circulated pieces found in regional military hoards to heavily worn examples surviving in long-term monetary deposits, demonstrating that the type remained in active economic service for decades.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. Elagabalus, Rome Mint
2. The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage: From the Accession of Nero to the Reform of Trajan Decius. pp. 642-658
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. p. 35, no. 91b
4. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Elagabalus 91b. ric.4.el.91b