Macrinus Bronze Sestertius RIC IV Macrinus 124

Monetary and Political Context

The accession of Marcus Opellius Macrinus in April AD 217 marked a rare administrative shift, placing an equestrian bureaucrat upon the imperial throne rather than an established senatorial commander. Macrinus took power in the East following the murder of Caracalla, inheriting an empire burdened by costly military operations and acute monetary pressure. Caracalla had previously degraded the silver coinage while adjusting bronze denominations to sustain inflated military expenditure. Although Macrinus attempted subtle currency reforms, including restoring higher silver purities to the denarius, his copper-alloy output at Rome remained integral to state prestige and internal economic liquidity. Large bronze denominations such as the sestertius were essential for major urban market transactions, public works, and everyday commercial accounting throughout the Italian peninsula and the western provinces. The issue of RIC IV Macrinus 124 belongs squarely to this transition, minted under senatorial sanction to formally acknowledge his newly assumed sovereignty while projecting peace, physical recovery, and divine safeguarding.

Production Standards and Minting

Production of RIC IV Macrinus 124 took place at the primary imperial mint located in Rome. While Macrinus resided in Antioch and northern Syria throughout his brief reign, the Roman senatorial mint struck extensive bronze denominations carrying his official image and imperial sanction. The flans for these sestertii were cast in open moulds before being struck between engraved iron dies, often displaying characteristic bevelled or slightly irregular rims typical of early third-century metallurgy. In composition, imperial sestertii of this epoch were struck in brass or related copper alloys, although trace metallurgy often varied depending on metal recycling. Production weights for Macrinus sestertii typically cluster between 20 and 26 grams, with flan diameters spanning 30 to 33 millimeters, though natural variations in cast flan weight and striking depth resulted in a notable dispersion across the surviving corpus. Die axis alignment for these official Rome products overwhelmingly adhered to a regular vertical axis, conforming to either 12 o'clock or 6 o'clock orientations.

Obverse Iconography

The obverse displays a dignified bust of Macrinus facing to the right, adorned with a laurel wreath and clad in military cuirass. Early portraits struck at Rome prior to the arrival of authentic likenesses from the eastern military camps frequently adapted familiar Severan facial models, depicting Macrinus with a neat, moderate beard and features reminiscent of his predecessor. The laurel wreath symbolizes imperial triumph and authority, while the cuirass highlights his nominal position as the commander-in-chief of Rome's legions. This official portrayal provided citizens and administrative bodies with a visual assurance of military order, balancing the traditional civic iconography of the laurel with the martial protection represented by the cuirassed torso.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse of the type features Salus, the Roman goddess of health, welfare, and preservation, seated facing left on a throne equipped with a prominent high back. In her left hand she holds a patera, a shallow libation bowl, from which she dispenses food or offering to a serpent that coils upward around an altar erected before her, while resting her right hand gently upon or near the serpent's head. The serpent and patera are traditional attributes of healing and divine guardianship derived from the cult of Asclepius and indigenous Italian healing traditions. In imperial ideology, Salus symbolized not merely medical health, but Salus Publica or Salus Augusti, the overarching security of the state and the preservation of the imperial house. Depicting Salus upon the bronze coinage served to calm public anxiety, promising institutional restoration and personal safety for the ruler following the violent assassination of Caracalla.

Inscriptions and Epigraphic Analysis

The obverse inscription reads IMP CAES M OPEL SEV MACRINVS AVG, expanding to Imperator Caesar Marcus Opellius Severus Macrinus Augustus. This legend illustrates the emperor's diplomatic strategy of integrating the celebrated name Severus into his official nomenclature to manufacture continuity with the Severan dynasty and placate loyal legions. On the reverse, the legend is recorded as PONTIF MAX TR P P P S C, representing Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate, Pater Patriae, Senatus Consulto. The recording of the high priesthood Pontifex Maximus and the initial Tribunician power TR P confirms the issuance of this type in AD 217 upon his assumption of executive civic offices. The letters S C, positioned prominently across the reverse field, denote Senatus Consulto, the formal senatorial decree authorizing the production of base-metal coinage at Rome.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard reference framework of Roman Imperial Coinage, this specific reverse design paired with the first tribunician title is catalogued as RIC IV Macrinus 124. Because Macrinus received his second tribunician power TR P II at the end of December AD 217 or early in AD 218, issues retaining the unnumbered TR P were struck entirely within AD 217. The Rome mint issued a coordinated suite of bronze denominations early in his reign, repeating this Salus composition across smaller fractions such as the dupondius and as. RIC 124 is typologically distinguished from subsequent issues by the unnumbered tribunician formula and the specific pairing of a laureate, cuirassed bust with the high-backed seated pose of Salus.

Circulation and Archaeological Context

Sestertii of Macrinus struck at Rome moved into monetary circulation throughout Roman Italy and the northwestern provinces of Gaul, Britannia, and the Rhine frontier, where base-metal currency was fundamental for regional commerce. Because Macrinus ruled for only fourteen months, his overall volume of bronze coinage remained modest compared to the extensive outputs of Septimius Severus or Caracalla. Surviving specimens recovered in site finds and hoards regularly exhibit considerable surface wear, demonstrating that sestertii of AD 217 were not immediately demonetized following his overthrow by Elagabalus in AD 218. Instead, they continued to circulate alongside first- and second-century bronzes for decades, remaining functional money until the gradual breakdown of the large bronze denomination system during the mid-third-century crisis.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. Macrinus, nos. 112-120
2. Roman Coins from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire. pp. 110-125
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Macrinus 124. ric.4.mcs.124
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. p. 14, no. 124