Macrinus Silver Denarius RIC IV Macrinus 49

Monetary Context and Silver Standards

The reign of Macrinus (April 217 to June 218 AD) represents a brief yet significant period of monetary adjustment within the Roman imperial currency system. Following the assassination of Caracalla, Macrinus inherited an empire strained by massive military subsidies, active campaigns on the eastern frontier, and a heavily debased coinage. Caracalla had lowered the fineness of the denarius to roughly fifty percent silver and introduced the double denarius, commonly termed the antoninianus. Upon seizing power, Macrinus sought to stabilize the currency and win the confidence of the civilian elite and treasury officials. One of his defining economic measures was the suspension of regular production of the antoninianus in silver and an upward adjustment in the fineness and physical quality of the traditional denarius. Metallurgical analyses of Roman imperial denarii show that Macrinus raised the silver content from Caracalla's level to approximately fifty-five to fifty-eight percent, bringing the average weight of well-preserved denarii into the range of 3.10 to 3.30 grams. Denarius type RIC IV Macrinus 49 belongs to the culmination of this monetary policy in 218 AD, issued during his second consulship and second tribunician tenure shortly before his overthrow by the partisans of Elagabalus.

Mint Attribution and Production

The standard catalogue attribution assigns RIC IV Macrinus 49 to the primary imperial mint at Rome, although Macrinus himself never visited the western capital during his fourteen-month reign. Following his elevation near Carrhae in Mesopotamia and his wintering at Antioch in Syria, imperial administrative directives and official portrait models were transmitted to Rome by imperial couriers. The mint at Rome operated continuously, translating imperial dispatches and ceremonial milestones into coinage for western distribution. Some 20th-century scholars, notably Harold Mattingly and Edward Sydenham, debated whether certain issues bearing long-bearded portraits were struck at an auxiliary eastern mint such as Antioch; however, detailed stylistic and die studies by Curtis L. Clay have confirmed that the vast majority of long-bearded issues with standard Rome stylistic characteristics were indeed struck at the capital mint. The dies for RIC IV Macrinus 49 exhibit the refined engraving, neat lettering, and consistent flan preparation characteristic of the central Rome workshops (officinae). Production relied on hand-hammering cast silver flans between two engraved dies, with coin dies adjusted to regular alignments, typically oriented at either twelve o'clock or six o'clock.

Obverse Portraiture and Iconography

The obverse of RIC IV Macrinus 49 presents a right-facing bust of the emperor, laureate and cuirassed, distinguished by a mature, elongated beard. Macrinus's portraiture at the mint of Rome underwent a rapid chronological evolution divided by numismatists into distinct phases. Upon his accession in spring 217 AD, the Rome mint lacked an authentic imperial likeness and initially produced portraits heavily influenced by the features of Caracalla, characterized by a short, cropped beard and a furrowed brow. As authentic official models arrived from the East, the portrait style shifted. By early 218 AD, coinciding with his assumption of the second consulship, the mint introduced the mature 'long beard' portrait style, which is typified by this issue. This long, luxuriant beard deliberately evoked the philosophical imagery and dignified gravitas of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Septimius Severus. The cuirass beneath the laurel wreath emphasizes his role as supreme military commander (imperator), conveying authority and legitimacy to an army that was inherently skeptical of a non-senatorial emperor from the equestrian order.

Reverse Iconography: The Parthian Victory

The reverse design of this type features the personification of Victory (Victoria), winged and draped, advancing briskly toward the right. In her outstretched right hand, she holds a celebratory laurel wreath, while her left hand cradles a palm branch resting across her left shoulder. The iconographic composition adheres to the classical Roman type of Victory gradient, a standard motif deployed across imperial coinage to commemorate triumphs on the battlefield. Historically, this reverse alludes to the military engagement with the Parthian King Artabanus IV near Nisibis in late summer 217 AD. Although the battle resulted in heavy Roman casualties and forced Macrinus to conclude a costly peace treaty involving massive indemnity payments of over two hundred million sesterces, official imperial propaganda presented the outcome as a triumph. The designation of Victory as Victoria Parthica transformed a diplomatic compromise into a celebrated military victory, an essential ideological projection intended to satisfy public expectations at Rome and reinforce the emperor's standing among the provincial legions.

Inscriptions and Imperial Titulature

The legends on RIC IV Macrinus 49 provide precise epigraphic evidence for dating and ideological messaging. The obverse legend reads IMP C M OPEL SEV MACRINVS AVG, expanding to Imperator Caesar Marcus Opellius Severus Macrinus Augustus. Here, the adoption of the gentilicium and cognomen 'Severus' represents an explicit effort by Macrinus to link himself dynastically to the revered founder of the Severan dynasty, Septimius Severus, thereby masking his lack of ancestral lineage. The reverse legend reads VICT PART P M TR P II COS II P P, which abbreviates Victoria Parthica, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate II, Consul II, Pater Patriae. The central triumphal claim, Victoria Parthica, frames the visual image of Victory. The surrounding civic and religious titles record that Macrinus had assumed the high priesthood (Pontifex Maximus), entered his second renewal of tribunician power (TR P II), occupied his second consulship (COS II), and accepted the traditional title of Father of the Fatherland (Pater Patriae). The letters are rendered in clean, classical Latin capitals, executed with balanced spacing around the inner edge of the beaded border.

Typology and Chronological Placement

Within the typology of the reign, RIC IV Macrinus 49 occupies an exact chronological window dating to the first half of 218 AD. Macrinus renewed his tribunician power on either December 10, 217 AD or January 1, 218 AD, depending on the administrative calendar observed at the mint, while his second consulship commenced on January 1, 218 AD, with Adventus as his consular colleague. Consequently, any issue uniting TR P II and COS II must postdate January 1, 218 AD. Because Macrinus was defeated at the Battle of Antioch on June 8, 218 AD and executed shortly thereafter, production of this type ceased definitively before the middle of June 218 AD. In the catalogue arrangement of Roman Imperial Coinage, type 49 sits alongside parallel issues depicting other imperial virtues, such as Fides Militum, Felicitas, and Salus, which also combine TR P II and COS II with the long-bearded obverse portrait. Variant dies within this specific type number show minor variations in the drapery of the cuirass or the positioning of the wreath ribbons, but the core formula remains tightly unified across the known corpus.

Circulation and Archaeological Context

Denarii of Macrinus, including RIC IV Macrinus 49, entered a currency pool that was heavily dominated by earlier Severan issues of Septimius Severus and Caracalla. Due to his brief fourteen-month reign and the relatively modest scale of his monetary output compared to long-reigning emperors, coins of Macrinus formed only a minor fraction of the total silver in circulation, typically representing less than two percent of the denarii found in contemporary hoards. Significant hoards from Roman Britain, the Rhine frontier, and the Balkan provinces, such as the Shapwick and Dorchester hoards, demonstrate that denarii struck under Macrinus circulated alongside both pre-215 AD denarii and Caracalla's antoniniani. Because Macrinus had increased the fineness of his denarii relative to Caracalla's debased coins, his issues were particularly subject to selective hoarding in accordance with Gresham's law. When Elagabalus ascended the throne in the summer of 218 AD, Macrinus suffered official damnatio memoriae by the Senate; while this led to the recasting of some silver issues and the erasure of his name from public monuments, his coins were not comprehensively recalled, continuing to circulate until the mid-third century demonetization of the denarius.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. 498-502
2. The Chronology of the Coinage of Macrinus (Numismatic Chronicle). pp. 21-40
3. RIC IV Macrinus 49 in Online Coins of the Roman Empire. RIC IV Macrinus 49
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. pp. 5-7, 10, no. 49