Maximinus Thrax Bronze Sestertius, RIC IV Maximinus Thrax 67

Monetary and Historical Context

The sestertius catalogue type RIC IV Maximinus Thrax 67 belongs to the foundational coinage struck immediately after the sudden accession of Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus in March of AD 235. The murder of the last Severan emperor, Severus Alexander, along with his mother Julia Mamaea on the Rhine frontier, propelled an equestrian officer of provincial origin to the imperial purple. In Rome, the imperial senate formally confirmed the elevation, while the imperial mint promptly initiated issues in gold, silver, and base metals to solidify the authority of the new regime. Within the tri-metallic currency structure inherited from the Severan dynasty, the sestertius occupied a central role as the workhorse denomination of everyday commercial transactions and municipal accounting across the Western provinces and Italy. Valued at one-fourth of a silver denarius or one-eighth of a silver antoninianus (radiate), the sestertius retained immense visual and ideological significance due to its expansive flan, which provided Roman authorities with an optimal medium for imperial messaging. Maximinus, who never visited the city of Rome during his reign, relied on the central mint to project an aura of established imperial legitimacy, continuity, and traditional military virtue to the populace and senate.

Production Standards and Minting

The production of RIC IV Maximinus Thrax 67 was concentrated entirely at the imperial capital mint of Rome. In this era, Roman bronze denominations were cast as heavy disc flans and struck between engraved bronze or iron dies utilizing manual hammer blows. Metallurgical studies of early third-century aes demonstrate that sestertii continued to be produced primarily in orichalcum, a copper-zinc brass alloy, though declining zinc supplies frequently resulted in mixed bronze alloys containing noticeable trace amounts of tin and lead. Sestertii of Maximinus struck during this initial issue period generally conform to a median target weight of approximately 20 to 22 grams, though individual surviving specimens naturally fluctuate between 17 and 25 grams due to the ancient practice of striking base-metal coinage al marco rather than weighing every blank individually. Flan diameters consistently measure between 29 and 32 millimeters, providing a broad canvas for die cutters. Dies were typically aligned to a regular twelve o'clock or six o'clock axis, adhering to the standard institutional practices of the Rome mint workshops during the early third century.

Obverse Portraiture and Stylistic Execution

The obverse design of RIC IV Maximinus Thrax 67 presents a right-facing portrait bust of the emperor Maximinus I, laureate, draped, and cuirassed. In the earliest dies cut in the immediate wake of his elevation in AD 235, mint engravers in Rome lacked access to a direct life likeness of the emperor, who was stationed far away on the Germanic frontier. Consequently, the initial portraits of this issue often exhibit softened features influenced by the idealized physiognomic conventions of the late Severus Alexander coinage. As official likenesses and military despatches arrived at the capital later in AD 235 and into early AD 236, engravers adapted the portraiture into the distinctive, heavily individualized veristic style for which Maximinus is famous. This evolved style emphasizes a prominent, projecting jaw, deep brow lines, broad nose, and closely cropped hair and beard executed through precise textural hatching. The inclusion of both drapery and cuirass on the imperial bust underscored his active status as military commander-in-chief, reinforcing his martial persona to the Roman citizenry.

Reverse Iconography of Victory

The reverse iconography of RIC IV 67 portrays Victory as an idealized winged goddess advancing gracefully to the right. Draped in a flowing chiton and peplos that billows behind her movement, she holds a tied circular laurel wreath aloft in her extended right hand and cradles a long palm frond over her left shoulder. Flanking the lower fields of the figure is the senatorial mark S C (Senatus Consulto). This iconographical composition drew upon a centuries-old visual lexicon dating back to the Hellenistic Nike and Republican triumphs. On issues of AD 235 to 236, the advancing Victory was a standard programmatic statement of imperial virtue (virtus) and prospective conquest, specifically referencing the ongoing military campaigns across the Rhine against the Alamanni. Maximinus prioritized decisive military victory to justify his usurpation and legitimize his rule in the eyes of the Senate, making the victorious goddess one of the earliest and most extensively repeated motifs of his Rome aes coinage.

Epigraphy and Legends

The obverse inscription reads IMP MAXIMINVS PIVS AVG, representing the initial titulature adopted upon the emperor's accession. Rendered in clean Roman epigraphic capitals running clockwise from the lower left, the legend abbreviates Imperator (IMP), followed by the personal nomen Maximinus, the traditional honorific Pius (expressing duty, filial piety, and reverence), and the supreme title Augustus (AVG). Noticeably absent from this legend are the consular, tribunician, or victory titles that would appear on later issues, establishing an early chronological marker. The reverse legend reads VICTORIA AVG, abbreviating Victoria Augusti (Victory of the Emperor). The formula celebrates victory as an innate imperial attribute belonging directly to the ruling Augustus. Across the lower left and right fields sits the prominent senatorial sanction S C (Senatus Consulto, 'by decree of the Senate'), affirming the constitutional convention that base-metal aes denominations continued to be issued under formal senatorial auspices, even under an unyielding military regime.

Typology and Chronological Sequence

Within the typology established by Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham in Roman Imperial Coinage, RIC IV 67 is classified as part of the first coinage of Maximinus I, struck between mid-AD 235 and early AD 236. The type is precisely distinguished from closely related subsequent issues by the combination of its reverse legend VICTORIA AVG and the absence of the title Germanicus Maximus. Later in AD 236, following successful campaigns beyond the Rhine, Maximinus assumed the official victory cognomen Germanicus, leading the Rome mint to alter both the obverse and reverse legends to forms such as MAXIMINVS PIVS AVG GERM and VICTORIA GERMANICA (catalogued under RIC IV 85 and 90). Simultaneously, the Rome mint produced exact parallel types of RIC 67 across other denominations, notably in the denarius (RIC IV 16) and dupondius or as (RIC IV 69). Minor die varieties within RIC 67 include slight shifts in bust ornamentation, ranging from fully draped and cuirassed to predominantly cuirassed with slight drapery on the far shoulder.

Circulation, Hoarding, and Survival

Coins of type RIC IV 67 circulated broadly throughout the western provinces of the Roman Empire, including Britannia, Gaul, the Rhine-Danube limes, and the Italian peninsula. Because the sestertius was an indispensable high-value bronze denomination, these pieces experienced vigorous commercial circulation alongside older Severan and Antonine bronze issues that remained in use for decades. Due to the rapid decline in the average weight and metal quality of bronze coinage over the subsequent decades of the mid-third century, heavy sestertii of the 230s were frequently retained in domestic savings or pulled from circulation for hoarding. Exemplars of RIC 67 regularly appear in archaeological site finds across Roman urban and military centers as well as in major third-century aes hoards buried prior to the monetary disruptions of the 260s. Surviving specimens frequently exhibit moderate to heavy wear, reflecting prolonged circulation, with well-preserved examples prized for documenting the stylistic evolution of third-century portraiture.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume VI: Severus Alexander to Balbinus and Pupienus. pp. 88-92, nos. 25-31
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Maximinus Thrax 67. ric.4.max_i.67
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. pp. 140-144, no. 67