Unpublished Elagabalus Tetradrachm Celebrating the Victory Over Macrinus

CNG 100, Lot: 1776. Estimate $1000. Sold for $12000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MESOPOTAMIA, Carrhae or Edessa. Elagabalus. AD 218-222. AR Tetradrachm (24mm, 12.71 g, 12h). AVT · K · M · A · · ANTΩNЄINOC, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / ΔHMAPX · ЄΞ VΠA · TO · B ·, eagle standing facing, head and tail right, with wings spread, holding wreath in beak; between legs, Nike advancing right, holding palm frond and wreath (or globe?); • to left and right of head. Unpublished. Good VF, deeply toned. Unique.

Under Elagabalus, tetradrachm production became centralized either at the mint of Antioch or Emesa. The exception appears to be in Mesopotamia; the frontier province enjoyed a considerable amount of freedom in coin production, striking extremely rare Greek legend tetradrachms (Prieur 1724) and Latin legend aurei (Leu 42, lot 373) for the emperor. As Elagabalus claimed to be the illegitimate son of Caracalla and his cousin Julia Soaemias, many of these coins stress the continuity of the Severan line by featuring Divus Septimius Severus, Divus Caracalla or, most remarkably, Plautilla on the reverse.

The portrait on the current coin is stylistically close to Prieur 1730 and the unique Leu aureus, and is probably by the same hand responsible for some issues struck at or for Carrhae during the reign of Macrinus (see especially Prieur 829 for a similar portrait of Diadumenian). The pellets in the reverse field are also characteristic of issues of Carrhae under Macrinus, which Prieur (p. 99) thought to have a religious significance. The striking of coinage in Mesopotamia for this period is not so clear cut, however. Other tetradrachms of Elagabalus feature Edessa’s characteristic “shrine” mintmark between the eagle’s legs, and the dynastic issues have generally been given to this mint. So the same artists may have been engraving dies for different mints, or a single mint may have struck coins for both cities. Whatever the case may be, in this instance the Nike between the eagle’s legs should not be interpreted as a mintmark. The current coin was almost certainly produced at the same time as the dynastic issues, with Nike symbolizing the victory over Macrinus and the reestablishment of the Severan line.