Macrinus Silver Denarius RIC IV Macrinus 27b

Monetary Context and Historical Setting

The accession of Marcus Opellius Macrinus in April AD 217 disrupted the dynastic succession established by Septimius Severus. As an equestrian Praetorian Prefect of North African origin, Macrinus possessed no senatorial lineage and was physically absent from Rome throughout his fourteen-month reign. The fiscal situation of the Roman Empire was strained by military concessions, heightened legionary pay inherited from Caracalla, and the immediate geopolitical crisis posed by the Parthian Empire on the Mesopotamian frontier. The denarius, although supplemented since AD 215 by the double-denarius or antoninianus, remained the standard silver unit for day-to-day imperial payments, military disbursements, and market transactions. Under Macrinus, imperial mint authorities paused the production of the antoninianus in precious metal and concentrated silver output on the traditional denarius, attempting to restore confidence in the currency. Concurrently, the mint retained the metallurgical standard established in the late Severan era, striking denarii with a fineness fluctuating around fifty percent silver, alongside substantial copper alloying. In this anxious monetary and political landscape, regular issues of silver denarii affirmed that the imperial machinery operated without interruption. The struck message of the denarius reassured senatorial elites, provincial administrators, and the legions that constitutional traditions, fiscal obligations, and imperial munificence would be upheld despite the dramatic transfer of power.

Production Standards and Mint Attribution

Catalogue type RIC IV Macrinus 27b is assigned to the imperial mint of Rome. Although earlier twentieth-century numismatic scholars occasionally posited that certain issues of Macrinus were produced at Antioch or another eastern travelling mint accompanying the emperor, modern chronological and die studies, particularly those by Curtis Clay, have reaffirmed Rome as the centralized center for precious-metal striking across this period. The dies for RIC IV Macrinus 27b exhibit the neat, compact engraving and disciplined epigraphy typical of the established urban workshops of the capital. Production of silver denarii during this window maintained a nominal weight standard centering between 3.0 and 3.3 grams, struck on round flans prepared from cast blanks. Die axes were predominantly aligned in the conventional Roman vertical or near-vertical orientations (six o'clock or twelve o'clock). While the emperor governed from Antioch and northern Syria, the Senate and monetary magistrates at Rome coordinated the production of his official coinages, relying on received imperial despatches to update imperial portraits, titles, and dates.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Portraiture

The obverse of RIC IV Macrinus 27b features a right-facing bust of Macrinus, wearing an imperial laurel wreath tied at the nape with flowing ties, clad in military cuirass, and marked by a distinctly long, heavy beard. In the early weeks of his reign, Rome mint engravers, working without firsthand knowledge of Macrinus's true features, produced portraits with shorter, trimmed beards resembling the late likenesses of Caracalla. As updated portrait models and physiognomic directives reached the mint from Syria, engravers transitioned to depicting Macrinus with an expansive, thick beard, reflecting his mature age and intellectual philosophical pretensions. The cuirassed bust underscores his status as imperator and supreme military commander, while the laurel wreath signifies victory and imperial majesty. The long-bearded portrait group represents the refined iconographic phase of late AD 217, distinguishing this variety from the earlier short-bearded dies categorized as RIC IV Macrinus 27a.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse design displays the emperor Macrinus himself, draped in the civil toga, seated left upon a sella curulis, or curule chair. In his outstretched right hand, he holds a celestial globe, while his left hand cradles a short sceptre resting against his body. This composition is steeped in centuries of republican and early imperial civic imagery. The curule chair was the ancestral magistral seat of Roman high office, signifying consular authority and judicial supremacy. By choosing civil togate attire rather than military battle dress on this reverse, the iconography projects an image of civic moderation, constitutional rule, and deference to the senatorial order. The globe embodies the concept of orbis terrarum, proclaiming Roman cosmic dominion and the universal scope of imperial care. The short sceptre functions as an emblem of sovereign rule and justice rather than bellicose conquest. Together, these attributes present Macrinus as a dutiful civil magistrate and protector of global order, offering a calculated visual contrast to the overtly aggressive military posturing that had characterized the final years of Caracalla.

Epigraphy and Titulature Analysis

The inscriptions on RIC IV Macrinus 27b provide precise legal and chronological frameworks for the issue. The obverse legend reads IMP C M OPEL SEV MACRINVS AVG, expanding in Latin to Imperator Caesar Marcus Opellius Severus Macrinus Augustus. The inclusion of 'Severus' was a deliberate ideological adoption, intended to integrate Macrinus into the Severan dynastic aura despite the absence of any blood relationship to Septimius Severus. The abbreviation 'IMP' designates his imperial acclamation, while 'AVG' marks him as the supreme Augustus. On the reverse, the legend reads P M TR P II COS P P, representing Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate II, Consul, Pater Patriae. The title Pontifex Maximus affirms his position as the supreme religious leader of the Roman state, an office granted to him despite his absence from the capital. The consulship ('COS') and the honorific Father of the Country ('P P') emphasize his civic leadership. Crucially, the tribunician iteration 'TR P II' indicates that this coin was struck under his second tribunician power. The epigraphy is rendered in clean, classical Roman capital letters, carefully positioned around the periphery inside bordered rims.

Typology and Chronological Classification

Within the typology of Roman imperial numismatics, RIC IV Macrinus 27b occupies a specific position established by Harold Mattingly and Edward Sydenham in The Roman Imperial Coinage. The overarching type RIC 27 is defined by the seated togate emperor reverse accompanied by the P M TR P II COS P P legend. Subtype 27a covers the earlier portrait variant featuring a short, clipped beard, while subtype 27b is defined specifically by the elongated, mature beard on the cuirassed bust. The chronological boundary of TR P II has been the subject of scholarly analysis. Under standard imperial practice, the tribunician power renewed either on the anniversary of accession (April AD 218 for Macrinus) or on the traditional senatorial calendar date of December 10. Numismatic evidence compiled by Curtis Clay demonstrates that Macrinus renewed his tribunician power on December 10, AD 217, following traditional Roman administrative practice. Consequently, denarii bearing TR P II with the initial consulship (COS) were struck exclusively during a narrow window between December 10, AD 217, and December 31, AD 217, prior to his assumption of a second consulship (COS II) on January 1, AD 218. As such, RIC IV Macrinus 27b represents an extremely concise, late-December issue of AD 217.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Survival

Despite the ephemeral length of Macrinus's reign, which ended in June AD 218 after his defeat at the Battle of Antioch, silver denarii of this period entered broad imperial circulation. Because Macrinus did not substantially debase the denarius beyond the existing Severan standard, his coins were not systematically culled or melted down by the populace. They remained in general circulation alongside the massive volumes of Septimius Severus and Caracalla. Hoard deposits across Britain, the Rhine-Danube frontier, and the Balkan provinces regularly document the presence of Macrinus denarii within early third-century assemblages, though in modest proportions that directly mirror their brief striking window. Types struck under the short-lived second tribunician power, such as RIC IV Macrinus 27b, appear in lower numbers than the abundant initial TR P issues of summer and autumn AD 217. In the decades that followed, the catastrophic inflation and debasement of the mid-third century under Decius, Trebonianus Gallus, and Valerian eventually led to the widespread hoarded retirement and melting of these earlier silver issues, leaving surviving specimens as essential records of late AD 217 imperial administration.

References

1. The Roman Coinage of Macrinus and Diadumenian. Numismatische Zeitschrift 93 (1979), pp. 21-40
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Macrinus 27b. ric.4.mcs.27b
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. pp. 5-26, no. 27b