Maximinus I “Thrax”, silver denarius, Rome mint, AD 236

Maximinus I “Thrax”, silver denarius, Rome mint, AD 236 (second tribunician year). 2.87 g, c. 20 mm, die axis 6 h. Obverse IMP MAXIMINVS PIVS AVG – laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Reverse P M TR P II COS P P – the emperor in military dress standing facing, head left, raising right hand in adlocutio gesture and holding spear; a legionary standard flanks him on either side. RIC 5; C. 64; BMC 161; MIR 283/C.. Light silver-grey tone, complete legends and well-defined standards.

Struck in Maximinus’ second tribunician year, the type shows the new soldier-emperor addressing his troops and is accompanied only by his official titles (pontifex maximus, tribunicia potestate II, consul, pater patriae). By dispensing with a named deity or virtue and depicting himself between the army’s standards, Maximinus underlined that his power rested squarely on the legions that had proclaimed him on the Rhine frontier after Severus Alexander’s assassination. Such coins were part of the pay-chest issues urgently produced in Rome for distribution to the northern armies during the opening campaigns of his short, highly militarised reign.