Severus Alexander Denarius RIC IV Severus Alexander 70

Monetary Context and Denominational Role

The coinage of Severus Alexander represents a period of institutional consolidation following the turbulent reigns of Caracalla and Elagabalus. Under Severus Alexander, imperial monetary policy discontinued the regular striking of the radiate double denarius, known to modern scholars as the antoninianus, which had been introduced in AD 215. Consequently, the traditional silver denarius regained its position as the premier silver coin of everyday commerce, state disbursements, and military pay throughout the Roman Empire. The denarius of AD 227, represented by RIC IV Severus Alexander 70, reflects the economic realities of the middle Severan era. The metallurgical composition of the denomination had undergone progressive debasement across preceding decades. Analyses of Severan silver coinage indicate that denarii struck during the mid-220s AD possessed an average silver fineness of approximately forty to forty-five percent, paired with a copper alloy core. Despite this reduced precious metal purity compared to the early principate, the denarius maintained stable domestic purchasing power and fiduciary acceptance across the provinces. Mass production of denarii funded regular state operations, bureaucratic salaries, and frontier defensive expenditures, serving as the foundational unit of accounting across the imperial fiscal system.

Production Standards and Mint Organization

RIC IV Severus Alexander 70 was struck exclusively at the imperial mint of Rome, which operated as the central hub of precious metal coinage production during this period. The mint at Rome was organized into distinct officinae, or workshops, that managed coordinated die production and striking across various denominations and reverse themes. By the middle of the 220s AD, the eastern branch mint at Antioch, which had operated under Elagabalus and the earliest months of Severus Alexander, had ceased regular denarius output, leaving Rome with an effective monopoly on official imperial silver denarii. Denarii of this issue were manufactured using traditional hot-striking techniques between engraved iron or bronze dies. Planchets were cast in molds and hammered to size, leading to typical variances in diameter between 18 and 20 millimeters. Weight standards for this type fall within the customary parameters of the late Severan denarius, averaging roughly 3.0 grams, though individual surviving specimens commonly vary between 2.6 and 3.5 grams due to original manufacturing tolerances, chemical leaching in soil, and mechanical wear. Die alignment typically exhibits an upright or slightly offset orientation, characteristic of the controlled mechanical practices of the Roman urban mint.

Obverse Iconography and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC IV Severus Alexander 70 features a right-facing portrait bust of Severus Alexander. The emperor is depicted wearing the laurel wreath, the traditional signifier of victorious command and civic leadership, with ribbons cascading behind the neck. His bust is draped, showing the mantle of civil and administrative authority clasped at the shoulder. Artistically, this issue belongs to the transitional portrait style of the emperor's middle reign. Having ascended the throne as an adolescent in AD 222, the emperor's earliest coin portraits presented distinctly youthful, idealized features. By AD 227, corresponding to his sixth year of imperial authority, the portraiture reflects greater maturity while maintaining smooth, classically inspired facial modeling. The execution reflects the refined standards of the Rome mint engravers, featuring crisp rendering of the facial profile, compact curled hair beneath the wreath, and naturalistic textile drapery over the bust. The obverse presentation carefully avoided any military or autocratic excess, emphasizing youth, moderation, and adherence to senatorial decorum in line with the regime's ideological public relations.

Reverse Iconography and Religious Imagery

The reverse iconography of RIC IV Severus Alexander 70 depicts the emperor standing toward the left, clad in the traditional Roman toga. In his extended right hand, he holds a patera, a shallow sacrificial dish used to pour libations, which he tilts over a lighted tripod altar set upon the ground before him. In his lowered left hand, he holds a ceremonial scroll (volumen), representing his administrative decrees or ritual obligations. This design is rich in ideological meaning, embodying the concept of imperial pietas. By showing the princeps personally performing traditional sacrificial rites, the coinage reaffirmed the emperor's supreme religious position as Pontifex Maximus. Following the religious controversies and foreign cults introduced under his predecessor Elagabalus, Severus Alexander's regime prioritized the restoration of orthodox Roman religious observances and ancestral customs (mos maiorum). The depiction of sacrificial libation at a tripod directly associated the emperor with the protection of traditional deities, divine favor, and the harmonious balance between state governance and religious sanctity.

Inscriptions and Epigraphic Analysis

The inscriptions on RIC IV Severus Alexander 70 follow standardized imperial epigraphic formulas that provide precise administrative and chronological details. The obverse legend reads IMP C M AVR SEV ALEXAND AVG, an abbreviation for Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander Augustus. The title Imperator identifies his supreme military authority, while Caesar and Augustus confirm his status as reigning monarch. The names Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander link him explicitly to the ancestral legacy of the Severan dynasty and the revered Antonine line, a dynastic fiction crucial for cementing the legitimacy of his reign. The reverse legend bears the dated formula P M TR P VI COS II P P, standing for Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate VI, Consul II, Pater Patriae. This inscription records his religious primacy as high priest (Pontifex Maximus), his sixth annual investiture with the powers of the plebeian tribune (Tribunicia Potestate VI), his second completed consulship (Consul II), and his formal senatorial honorific as father of his country (Pater Patriae). The presence of these titles reflects the official public record of the Roman state, neatly framing the sacrificial scene within legalistic magistracies.

Typology and Chronological Placement

RIC IV Severus Alexander 70 is securely dated to the year AD 227 by its reverse titulature recording TR P VI alongside COS II. Severus Alexander first received the tribunician power upon his accession in March AD 222, with annual renewals conventionally taking place on the tenth of December or on the accession anniversary, depending on specific administrative recording practices. His sixth tribunician term commenced in late AD 226 or early AD 227 and ran through the end of AD 227, while his second consulship was held in AD 226. Consequently, this coin was struck within the calendar year AD 227. In the typological arrangement established by Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham in Roman Imperial Coinage, volume IV, part 2, this type forms part of the dated annual series of Rome denarii. It is closely related to neighboring types, including RIC 71, which shares the same reverse legend and sacrificial scene but presents an undraped, laureate head rather than a draped bust. Understanding these subtle distinctions between head and bust variants is critical for precise classification within third-century numismatic taxonomies.

Circulation, Hoards, and Archaeological Context

Denarii of Severus Alexander struck in AD 227 entered a massive, empire-wide pool of silver currency. Because the denarius retained broad circulation alongside earlier Severan silver, coins of RIC IV Severus Alexander 70 remained active in everyday exchange for several decades following their initial minting. The denomination circulated heavily across the military garrisons along the Rhine and Danube frontiers, as well as in civil centers in Britannia, Gaul, Italy, and the Balkan provinces. Archaeological evidence from major third-century hoards, such as the Shapwick hoard in Britain and various large assemblages across continental Europe, demonstrates that denarii of Severus Alexander continued to be hoarded alongside debased antoniniani well into the reigns of Gordian III, Philip I, and even the mid-third-century crisis under Decius and Valerian. Their survival in hoards highlights Gresham's Law in practice: as the antoninianus returned and underwent rapid debasement during the 240s and 250s AD, the comparatively higher silver content of Severus Alexander's denarii encouraged their withdrawal from daily circulation, preservation in private savings, and eventual burial.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. VI: Severus Alexander to Balbinus and Pupienus. p. 153
2. Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700. pp. 125-132
3. Coining Images of Power: Representations of Severan Emperors on Imperial Coinage (A.D. 193-235). pp. 147-160
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. p. 76, no. 70
5. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Severus Alexander 70. ric.4.sa.70