How to Identify the Elagabalus Denarius

What the Coin Is

Elagabalus, born Varius Avitus Bassianus, became emperor as a teenager in AD 218 through the efforts of his grandmother Julia Maesa and ruled until his assassination in 222. His coinage is notable both for standard imperial types and for a set of unusual religious issues reflecting his controversial promotion of the Syrian sun god Elagabal.

Obverse Design & Inscriptions

The obverse shows a youthful, soft-featured bust, usually laureate though radiate on some special religious issues, facing right. The legend generally reads IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG or IMP CAES M AVR ANTONINVS AVG, reflecting his adoption of the Antonine dynastic name to bolster his claimed descent from Caracalla.

Reverse Design & Inscriptions

Most reverses use standard imperial personifications such as Pax, Victoria, Fides Militum, Providentia, and Salus. The most visually distinctive reverse, however, shows a conical black sacred stone (a baetyl) set within a four-horse chariot (quadriga), topped by a parasol with a star above, accompanied by the legend SANCT DEO SOLI ELAGABAL ("to the holy sun god Elagabal"), one of the most unusual and immediately recognizable reverse designs in the entire Roman coinage series.

Size, Weight, Metal & Edge

The coin measures roughly 18-19mm across and weighs about 2.9-3.2 grams, with silver fineness continuing to decline, generally in the 40-45 percent range. The edge is plain.

Mint Marks & Where to Find Them

Coins were struck at both Rome and Eastern mints, with Antioch-style issues showing a noticeably different engraving character from Rome's output, though there is no formal mint-letter system to search for.

Telling It Apart from Similar Coins

Elagabalus's portrait is softer, rounder, and more youthful than Caracalla's grim, jowly late-reign features, making the two reasonably easy to distinguish once compared side by side. Compared to his eventual successor and cousin, Severus Alexander, whose portraits are similarly youthful, look for the absence of any SEVERVS ALEXANDER legend and the presence of the unique sun-cult reverse types, which belong to Elagabalus alone.

Judging Condition & Grade at a Glance

On standard portrait types, check the roundness and smoothness of the youthful facial features for wear. On the sun-god chariot reverse, examine the clarity of the conical stone, the parasol, and the small star above it, since these fine details are what make the type identifiable and are quick to wear down or corrode.

Authenticity Red Flags

The sun-god chariot reverse is rare and highly desirable, making it a frequent forgery target; look for an inconsistent or wrongly proportioned stone shape, an incorrectly formed parasol, or visible tooling marks around the small figures and chariot wheels. As with other heavily debased Severan-era silver, also check for a coppery flash at any wear point, which would indicate a plated fourrée rather than a genuine, if low-fineness, silver coin.