M OΠ MAKΡEINOC CE, laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right / ΠEΡΓAIΩN, Victory advancing right, carrying wreath and a palm branch. 13mm, 2.32 grams. RPC -.

Unpublished coin. High quality, heavily patinated but very clear and attractive.

Macrinus (r. 217–218 CE) was the first Roman emperor who was neither a senator nor of noble birth, rising instead through the equestrian ranks as a skilled lawyer and administrator. As praetorian prefect under Caracalla, he orchestrated - or at least quickly benefited from - the emperor’s assassination and was proclaimed ruler by the army. Macrinus attempted to reverse Caracalla’s costly military and financial policies, cutting expenditures and seeking peace with Parthia, but these measures angered the soldiers, who saw them as threats to their pay and prestige. His position collapsed when Julia Maesa promoted her teenage grandson Elagabalus as a rival claimant. Defeated in battle near Antioch in 218, Macrinus was captured while fleeing and executed, ending one of the briefest and most fragile reigns in Roman imperial history.