Sale: CNG 82, Lot: 1044. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2009.  Sold For $500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Macrinus. AD 217-218. AR Denarius (2.79 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 218. Laureate and cuirassed bust right, wearing medium-length beard / PONTIF MAX TR P II COS P P, Macrinus standing in slow quadriga left, holding eagle-tipped scepter and being crowned by Victory, who stands behind him. RIC IV 36; Szaivert series 7; RSC 88. VF, toned, traces of deposits. Rare.

The dating and sequence of the coinage of Macrinus has been subject to much discussion, engendered by a curious reversal in his titles. As Curtis Clay noted in "The Roman Coinage of Macrinus and Diadumenian," NZ 93 (1979), pp. 21-40, Macrinus' coins showing one (first) consulship follow the coins showing a second consulship. Apparently his first consular acclamation was an honorary title frequently given to equestrian officials. When he became a true consul in January 218, he was titled consul for the second time on his coinage until he apparently insisted on constitutional correctness. The honest emperor also did not press the claim of having won a victory over the Parthian king Artabanos; he was in fact repeatedly defeated by the invading Persian army, and only staved off disaster by agreeing to a substantial payment of some 15,000,000 drachms to cement a truce. The "Victoria Parthica" and quadriga coin types, and imperial title Parthicus, were therefore short lived phenomena; as ephemeral as his unfortunate reign.