Coin of the Day #441 (7/19/2025)
My big recent acquisition! An incredibly rare issue of the usurper Macrianus Minor with a previously unknown obverse die.
Roman Province - Pisidia
AE21 - 4.49g
Macrianus Minor 260-261 AD
Antioch Mint
Obverse IMP CAE T FOL ION MACPIANOS
Bust of Macrianus right, radiate, draped, cuirassed, from behind
Reverse ANTIOCHI CL S R
Vexillum topped by eagle, flanked by standards
RPC X 63358
You’re also going to get a ton of info about this one!
For historical context (basic info, mostly from Wikipedia tbh): Roman emperor Valerian was captured in 260 AD at the Battle of Edessa during his campaign against the Sassanids and Shapur I. Valerian’s son and co-emperor, Gallienus, was alive and well but occupied by revolts in the eastern part of empire. With the lawful sole emperor distracted, one of Valerian’s fiscal officers, Fulvius Macrianus, took control in the west as the remnants of the Roman army successfully drove back the Sassanids. Fulvius Macrianus was not able to assume the purple because a deformity in one of his legs, but had his two sons (Macrianus Minor and Quietus) elevated to the throne. This usurpation managed to gain recognition throughout much of Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor for nearly a year. Macrianus Major and Minor would later march to Rome to take control of the whole empire but they were defeated by Gallienus’s forces in Thrace in 261 AD. Quietus, soon after the loss of his father and brother, lost control of the local provinces who now favored Palmyrene king Septimius Odaenathus. Quietus was besieged by the Palmyrene king after he fled to Emesa Syria, where he was killed by its inhabitants.
Despite their usurpation lasting just over a year and the wide area that recognized them to some degree, only a few mints issued coins in the names of Macrianus Minor and Quietus. These are the imperial mints previously held by Valerian in Antioch Syria and Samosata, the mint for the Egyptian province in Alexandria, and the civic mints in Antioch (Pisidia), Heraclea Pontica and Nicaea (Bithynia).
This coin is a new discovery! Previously there was only one known obverse die of Macrianus used in Antioch Pisidia. This new die appears to be the first die used of Macrianus as it is paired with a reverse used with Valerian issues while the later die is sometimes paired with a reverse used in Gallienus’s sole reign.
This discovery is a huge piece of evidence for those trying to arrange issues of Valerian and Gallienus from Antioch Pisidia (me). Though I already assumed it to be true based on stylistic similarities to sole reign issues of Gallienus, the Valerian obverse that shares a reverse die with this coin can now be dated with good confidence to the very end of Valerian’s reign, c. 260 AD.
Here’s a chart of the die pairings of Macrianus and related issues of Valerian and Gallienus. Arrows represent a known die pairing, red arrows represent die pairings that I own an example of. The numbering of the obverse dies (Macrianus 1, Gallienus 11, etc.) is not a reference to anything, just an arbitrary numbering for my notes. Known pairings are sourced from Oxford’s Roman Provincial Coinage project, Krzyzanowksa’s Monnaies coloniales d’Antioche de Pisidie, and my personal collection.
Oddly, there are no known coins of Quietus from Antioch Pisidia. This is the only mint that issued coins for Macrianus but none for Quietus. Are there some out there waiting to be discovered? Maybe not. This mint rarely issued coins for more than one ruler at a time after the Severan period, even if there were co-emperors. It doesn’t appear that Antioch Pisidia ever issued coins of Gallienus during his joint reign with Valerian based on die marriages. That is, except for ONE coin (RPC X unassigned, ID 85148) which has a reverse that is also paired with an obverse of Valerian. Though to add some confusion and doubt to this one coin, that Gallienus obverse was primarily used in Iconium Lycaonia (an adjacent city allied with Antioch Pisidia).