Macrinus Silver Antoninianus RIC IV Macrinus 63e

Monetary Context and the Antoninianus Under Macrinus

When Marcus Opellius Macrinus ascended the imperial throne in April AD 217 following the assassination of Caracalla near Carrhae, he inherited an imperial treasury under severe financial strain. Caracalla had vastly inflated military stipends and introduced the radiate silver piece, conventionally termed the antoninianus, around early AD 215 to alleviate liquidity shortages. Valued tariffed as a double denarius yet containing only about one and a half times the silver weight of a standard denarius, the antoninianus functioned as an overvalued credit piece. Macrinus confronted a precarious fiscal landscape, needing to retain legionary loyalty while avoiding complete economic collapse. Rather than flooding the market with this overvalued denomination, Macrinus curbed its output substantially. The production of the antoninianus under his reign formed a comparatively minor component of his overall silver emission, with the traditional denarius dominating Rome's striking operations. RIC IV Macrinus 63e belongs to this limited series of double denarii issued to preserve monetary continuity while attempting to restore trust in the imperial currency. Macrinus also sought to elevate the fineness of the silver currency slightly from the debased levels reached under Caracalla, adjusting the alloy closer to approximately fifty percent fine silver before facing political collapse in June AD 218.

Mint Organization and Production at Rome

The striking of RIC IV Macrinus 63e occurred at the principal imperial mint in Rome, which operated with organized officinae handling distinct denominations and thematic series. Although Macrinus spent his entire reign in the eastern provinces and never set foot in Rome as emperor, the senate and the central mint in the capital immediately recognized his title and initiated coin production on his behalf. Engravers at the Rome mint worked initially without an official life portrait, adapting existing Severan conventions before receiving formal imperial models. Die-linking studies of third-century coinage suggest that antoninianus dies were cut by the same experienced engravers responsible for the concurrent denarii, though antoniniani were struck on broader, slightly thicker flans. Metallurgical analyses of Macrinus's Rome antoniniani indicate average weights fluctuating between 4.8 and 5.3 grams, with diameters usually spanning 21 to 23 millimeters. The blanks were prepared by casting flans in open molds and then planishing and striking them between hand-held dies. Production of RIC IV Macrinus 63e was relatively short-lived, with dies experiencing standard operational wear before being replaced or retired as portrait styles evolved.

Obverse Typology and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC IV Macrinus 63e displays a right-facing bust of Macrinus wearing a radiate crown, draped with a military cuirass. The radiate crown serves as the essential denominational diagnostic for the antoninianus, paralleling the crown used on the dupondius in the imperial bronze system. Macrinus's portraiture on this issue is distinguished by a short, cropped beard, representing what numismatists define as his earliest stylistic phase. When news of his accession reached the mint at Rome, die-cutters lacked a firsthand likeness of the new ruler and depicted him with a tight, neatly trimmed military beard reminiscent of Caracalla and Septimius Severus. Only later in his reign did an updated imperial image arrive from Syria showing Macrinus with a markedly longer, fuller beard, leading to subsequent distinct portrait varieties. In RIC IV Macrinus 63e, the bust is shown cuirassed, emphasizing his role as supreme military commander (imperator), an ideological necessity for an equestrian official who achieved the purple without aristocratic lineage or an established military career. The engraving is executed in the crisp, classical style characteristic of the Rome mint during the early third century.

Reverse Iconography of Felicitas

The reverse design of RIC IV Macrinus 63e features the personification Felicitas standing draped, facing left. In her right hand she holds a long caduceus, the ancient emblem of Mercury symbolizing peace, safe commerce, and divine harmony, while in her left hand she cradles a cornucopiae, the horn of plenty overflowing with the fruits of the earth. Felicitas was a standard personification in imperial ideology, signifying not merely private happiness but the collective well-being, good fortune, and fertility of the state under imperial stewardship. Under Macrinus, who faced immediate diplomatic challenges with Parthia and severe unrest in Armenia and Mesopotamia, the appeal to Felicitas functioned as programmatic propaganda. It assured the populace and the senate that the transition of power away from the tyrannical final years of Caracalla would inaugurate a reign of domestic contentment and economic recovery. The combination of the caduceus and the cornucopiae visually unified the concepts of peace, lawful administration, and material abundance.

Epigraphy and Legend Analysis

The obverse legend on RIC IV Macrinus 63e reads IMP C M OPEL SEV MACRINVS AVG, an abbreviated Latin formula expanding to Imperator Caesar Marcus Opellius Severus Macrinus Augustus. The prefix Imperator Caesar establishes his supreme executive and military authority, while the inclusion of Severus was a calculated political choice. Although Macrinus possessed no biological relationship to the Severan dynasty, he adopted the name Severus to cultivate dynastic legitimacy, appease the legions loyal to Septimius Severus, and assert continuity of the imperial house. On the reverse, the legend reads FELICITAS TEMPORVM, translating directly as 'The Felicity of the Times' or 'The Happiness of the Age'. This phrase is framed in the nominative or genitive construction customary on imperial issues, announcing an epoch of divine favor and tranquility. The lettering on both faces is rendered in clear, tall Roman capitals typical of early third-century die cutting at the Rome mint, with standardized letterforms and even spacing along the beaded border.

Typology, Variants, and Relative Chronology

Within the typology of Macrinus's coinage defined in Roman Imperial Coinage Volume IV Part II, catalogue number 63 encompasses several bust variations featuring the FELICITAS TEMPORVM reverse. The specific sub-type 63e designates the combination of this reverse with the radiate, cuirassed bust wearing a cropped beard. Parallel antoniniani in the series incorporate drapery, cuirass, or combinations thereof, as well as the later portrait type characterized by a long, cascading beard (such as RIC IV 64 and 65). Because the cropped beard reflects the Rome mint's earliest phase of production, RIC IV Macrinus 63e was struck during the opening months of Macrinus's reign, beginning in late spring or summer of AD 217. As updated portrait likenesses were transmitted from the imperial court at Antioch to Rome toward the close of AD 217 and early AD 218, the short-bearded dies were superseded by long-bearded varieties. Consequently, RIC IV Macrinus 63e occupies a tightly bounded chronological window spanning AD 217 to the winter of AD 217/218, prior to the widespread implementation of the second portrait style.

Hoard Evidence and Monetary Circulation

Because the total volume of antoniniani minted under Macrinus was small compared to Caracalla's massive initial emission or the later vast issues of Gordian III and Decius, specimens of RIC IV Macrinus 63e are relatively uncommon in European and Near Eastern coin hoards. In hoarding contexts such as the famous Reka Devnia hoard from Marcianopolis, coins of Macrinus represent only a tiny fraction of the recovered third-century silver. The overvalued antoninianus was viewed with suspicion by the public and provincial markets, and hoarders frequently preferred to store higher-fineness early Severan denarii when available. Nevertheless, surviving specimens of RIC IV Macrinus 63e demonstrate genuine circulation wear, confirming that they moved through commerce alongside earlier denarii and provincial tetradrachms. Following the defeat and execution of Macrinus in June AD 218, the incoming regime of Elagabalus did not declare a formal damnatio memoriae that systematically melted his silver coinage, allowing existing pieces of Macrinus to circulate until the mid-third-century currency reforms and severe inflations removed early Severan silver from active use.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. Macrinus, nos. 4-6
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Macrinus 63e. ric.4.mcs.63e
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. p. 10, no. 63