Landed a "Grail" coin: Early Tetradrachm of Macrinus with a unique "transitional" portrait

I'm very happy to share my newest addition… can’t remember the last time I was this excited for a coin to arrive! This tetradrachm of Macrinus was struck in Edessa shortly after he rose to power by helping to orchestrate the assassination of Caracalla. Macrinus started to produce new coins in Edessa fairly quickly after taking over as emperor, likely before the mint workers had received his official portrait. As a result, some of the earliest tetradrachms from this mint have “transitional” portraits of Macrinus which somewhat resemble Caracalla. While I’ve come across several of those transitional portraits, I’ve never seen one quite like this.

What makes this coin special is that the portrait on this Macrinus tet doesn’t just resemble Caracalla, in my opinion, it is a portrait of Caracalla.

What I believe happened is that the portrait for this obverse die was completed while Caracalla was still in power. Before the obverse legend had been engraved, they received word of Caracalla's death at the mint. In a rush to get new coins made for the new emperor, rather than waste an almost-finished obverse die, the die engravers just kept the old portrait of Caracalla and then added in the obverse legend for Macrinus. The end result is a coin with a portrait of Caracalla and an obverse legend with the name of the man who had him murdered.



Macrinus, Mesopotamia, Edessa, 217-218 AD., BI Tetradrachm (28 mm, 13.00 g). Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of "Macrinus" to right, seen from behind. AY•K•M•ΟΠЄΛ•CЄΥ•ΜΑΚΡЄΙΝΟC CЄ/ Rev. ΔΗΜΑΡΧ ЄΞ ΥΠΑΤΟC Eagle with spread wings standing facing, head to right and holding wreath in beak; between the eagle's legs, shrine. Prieur 864(var)? Very rare.

The right side of the obverse legend clearly reads "CЄΥ ΜΑΚΡЄΙΝΟC" which confirms that despite the portrait, the coin was in fact struck under Macrinus.

Here is a close-up of the obverse in hand:


I don't think there should be much doubt that this portrait was originally intended to be for a coin of Caracalla. By comparison, the tetradrachm of Caracalla shown below was struck in Edessa towards the end of Caracalla's reign, and the similarity in portrait style to my coin is pretty easy to see. (This coin was coincidentally sold just 3 lots earlier at the same auction):

Caracalla, Mesopotamia, Edessa, BI Tetradrachm, 215-217 AD, Prieur 845.
(Photo courtesy of Leu Numismatik)

I've always found these "transitional" portraits to be fascinating; they are a great little snapshot of some of the chaos that would come after a sudden transition of power... the mint workers did the best they could even though they didn't even know what the new guy looked like yet. There are certainly some great examples of Maximinus Thrax resembling Severus Alexander, and of Trajan resembling Nerva. The example below from the Prieur collection (not mine) is a more common "hybrid" portrait of Macrinus resembling Caracalla.

(Photo courtesy of CNG)

I find it especially interesting that the Edessa mint appears to have quite a few transitional portraits for Macrinus, indicating that many of his earliest coins may have been struck there. Caracalla was famously murdered when he stopped to relieve himself while on the road from Edessa to Carrhae, and Caracalla had been stationed in Edessa for several months before his assassination. My own speculation for why many coins appear to have been struck at Edessa so soon after the assassination is that much of Caracalla's army may have been stationed nearby, and Macrinus needed to make sure that he had enough money on hand to keep the soldiers paid and happy (I don't think the soldiers cared much whose face was on the coin).

I got into a bit of a bidding war for this at the Leu auction (and paid almost double what I expected to ) but I'm so happy I did....I don't know if I'll come across another coin quite like this one.

Please share your early “transitional” portraits, any early portraits of emperors that look much different than their later portraits, your coins of Macrinus or Caracalla, coins from Edessa, or anything else relevant!

 

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Pretty nice coin @Shea19 !

When Florianus became Emperor, he looked like his predecessor Tacitus, didn't he ?



And when Victorinus became Emperor, on his transitional issues he looked like Marius.

 

..o-man...i LOVE those transitional coins! very nice.

 

An interesting observation, and an attractive coin!

Compare Prieur's comment on his no. 852, also an Edessan tetradrachm of Macrinus:

"The portrait of Macrinus resembles that of Caracalla, and was presumably made before the arrival of the official imago of the emperor was available. It is probably, therefore, the first issue of Macrinus from this mint."

 

What an awesome coin, congrats! And right up my alley, I love transitional issues.

Here's one of Aurelian from Cyzicus where he looks just like Claudius Gothicus:

(It's also a double die clash - you can see two ghostly outlines of the obverse portrait in incuse on the reverse.)

 

Shea19, Nice score . Your coin is clearly a "transitional portrait", & both obverse & reverse look like Prieur 852. For this coin Prieur states "The portrait of Macrinus resembles that of Caracalla, made before the official imago of the emperor was available. It is probably, therefore, the first issue of Macrinus from that mint." For comparison a tet from my collection of Macrinus struck at the Emesa Mint.

 

That's a fascinating coin, @Shea19, and that's clearly Caracalla's visage.

I have a coin of Faustina II that was engraved by someone who had no idea what she looked like. I imagine it happened like this ...

"Hey, Nikolaos, Mithres says to engrave a coin for Emperor Antoninus' daughter Faustina!"

"What's she look like?"

"I dunno. Some Roman imperial lady. Make her look like an emperor's daughter."

"What's an emperor's daughter look like? I only know the local Lydian girls."

"Well ... like Germanicus' daughter Agrippina or Titus' daughter Julia."

"Okay ... I guess ... I'll get on it!"

Nikolaos sets to work on a blank die, modeling it after a coin of Claudius and Agrippina II from nearby Thyatira and a denarius of Julia Titi on hand.





And he comes up with this ...

Faustina II, AD 147-175/6.
Roman provincial Æ 17.1 mm, 3.04 g, 7 h.
Lydia, Dioshieron, Magistrate L. Iouli. Mithres (Grammateus), AD 147- c. 149.
Obv: ΦAVCTЄINA CЄBACTH, bare-headed and draped bust right, hair in a top-knot and looped ponytail.
Rev: ЄΠI MIΘPOV ΔIOCIЄPЄITΩN, Asklepios standing left, holding serpent-entwined staff.
Refs: RPC IV.2, 1236 (temp); BMC 22.76, 12; SNG Cop 116; SNG Turkey 240-41; Waddington 4963.
Notes: Double-die match to Paris specimen (BNF) and Ashmolean specimen.​

Eventually, coins with imperial portraits of Faustina II enter circulation in the backwater town of Dioshieron as they are spent by pilgrims coming to worship at the temple of Zeus and the mint workers learn what she looks like.

"Hey, Nikolaos, boss wants you to make another coin for the emperor's daughter! And do it RIGHT this time, will you?"

"Okay! I'm on it"

Nikolaos sets to work and this time, the portrait looks more like her ...

 

@Shea19, very nice specimen & excellent write up! Certainly a "wanted" coin, but I think also a "needed" coin?

 

Macrinus from Cibyra, Phrygia.
I have always thought that this bust had a bit of Caracalla in there.

 

Fantastic coin! That Florian as Tacitus is one of the best transitional portraits I’ve ever seen.

Very cool…and I love that double die clash!

That’s a really interesting Vespasian…doesn’t really look like him or Vitellius. It’s funny, all they had to do after Vitellius died was stick with a portrait of an overweight bald man. Your posthumous Vespasian is a real beauty, great coin!

 

A very interesting and impressive portrait indeed; congrats!

 

Ha! Thanks RC, love that little story, I think that’s dead on.

Very cool, I definitely see the resemblance on there, great coin!

Thanks! You certainly know the feeling of landing a unique coin…I’m so happy to have won this one!

 

Thanks Curtis, I appreciate it! Just curious, are there any Imperial coins with “transitional” portraits of Macrinus that resemble Caracalla? I’ve looked but have never come across one, so I figured you’d probably be the best person to ask.

 

A fun coin and observation - congratulations on the find. Here's a favorite trio of coins. If you ignore the legends: Which ones are Severus Alexander (AD 222 to 235) and which ones Maximinus Thrax (AD 235 to 238)?

Spoiler: Who's who?

The first coin on the left is Severus Alexander. The other two are Maximinus. The middle/top coin has a very "Severus Alexander" transitional portrait.

• Alexander/Annona RIC 187
• Maximinus/Victory RIC 16
• Maximinus/Providentia RIC 13

 

I found this on eBay. Never seen a Probus that looked so much like Tacitus.

 

Great coin @Shea19 and a very nice score. One can imagine the celators saying "Well, we've received orders to mint coins in the name of the new emperor. What does he look like? Who knows, just use the old imago."