Jerome,
There are two second-cent. issues which prove my point, and incidentally solve seemingly intractable chronological problems.
(1) The three-standards
asses of
Hadrian in 118,
PONT MAX TR POT COS II, which however oddly
still show
his old long
obv. legend in the dative case, WHICH IN ALL OTHER
DENOMINATIONS WAS SUPERSEDED BY A SHORTER NOMINATIVE
LEGEND LATE IN 117. Why the persistence of the old
obv. legend into 118 on the
asses only? Very simple: these
asses were produced as New Year's gifts late in 117 BEFORE THE CHANGE OF THE
OBV. LEGEND, but were of course dated ahead to
COS II, a title that it was known
Hadrian would assume on 1 Jan. 118!
(2) The
HILARITAS, FELICITATI
CAES Galley, and
PRINCIPI IVVENTVTIS asses of
Commodus Caesar, the last showing clasped
hands before
standard on prow, with the enigmatic
obv. legend COMMODO
CAES AVG FIL GERM SARM COS.
COS means 177 AD, but we know that
Commodus was more than merely
Caesar at that date: late in 176 he was granted the title
IMP and the tribunician power so that he could triumph together with
his father on 23
Dec. 176. All other
denominations accordingly always call
Commodus IMP and TR P in 177. Why do these strange
asses persist in denying him those titles in 177? Again very simple: the
asses were produced as New Year's presents late in 176, at a time when it was known that
Commodus would become
COS on 1 Jan., BUT BEFORE IT WAS KNOWN THAT HE WOULD ALSO BE ASSUMING THE TRIBUNICIAN POWER AND THE TITLE
IMPERATOR BEFORE THAT DATE! The bronze medallions of
Commodus meant for the same New Year's, incidentally, were obviously produced LATER THAN the
asses, since they all correctly call him
IMP and TR P as well as
COS!
As to the third century: in 196 Septimius, apparently in connection with
his anger at the Senate for supporting
Clodius Albinus whom Septimius
had defeated on 19 Feb. 196 (not 197 as the books all say!), cancelled the large annual New Year's issues of both medallions and
asses. Such issues exist for 1 Jan. 194, 1 Jan. 195, and 1 Jan. 196, in fact they account for almost all of the
asses produced by Septimius during those years; but from 1 Jan. 197 on the bronze medallions disappear almost entirely, and the large issues of
asses at the beginning of each year disappear with them.
Bronze medallions are almost or totally non-existent for the rest of Septimius' reign, and for the reigns of
his successors
Caracalla,
Macrinus, and
Elagabalus; only during the reign of
Severus Alexander was a fairly regular production of bronze medallions resumed. There are several indications, however, that the issues of New Year's
asses might have resumed 10-15 years earlier than that.
Septimius died on 4 Feb. 211 in York, and
Caracalla became P M and P P,
Geta P P only, when the news of that event reached
Rome. Yet there is a surprisingly large issue of
asses of Septimius' last tribunician year TR P XIX, and Caracalla's corresponding TR P XIIII and Geta's TR P III without the P M and P P of their joint reign.
Sestertii and
dupondii with these dates, in contrast, are comparatively
rare. The
asses look rather like a New Year's issue for 1 Jan. 211.
All
asses and
dupondii of
Macrinus are
rare to very
rare, with a single exception:
his asses dated TR P II
COS II, with five different
rev. types, which turn up again and again. Now in my paper on the coinage of
Macrinus, I showed that these titles were a MISTAKE of the
mint of
Rome, since
Macrinus had decided NOT to call himself
COS II in 218; when the news of this decision reached
Rome, probably no later than early February 218, the
mint of course reverted from TR P II
COS II to TR P II
COS. All of those
asses with the erroneous consular number must have been produced before early Feb. 218. I think there can be little doubt that they are a New Year's issue, produced in Nov.-Dec. 217, but dated ahead to 218, with the wrong consular number as it turned out.
Perhaps the New Year's issues of
asses were resumed around 207, when
asses become commoner than they
had been from 197 to 206, though unfortunately none of the issues before that of 211 can be dated more exactly within the relevant tribunician years. We can assume that most of the bronze medallions and
asses from
Sev. Alexander's reign on, until the end of the bronze coinage under
Gallienus, were issued as New Year's gifts, but it is hard to cite actual proof for this hypothesis, since there were far fewer changes of the imperial titles on the coins in the course of the tribunician year in this era than in the Antonine and early
Severan period. The main reason is that the coins
had stopped recording the emperor's
imperatorial acclamations, as they
had done from 147 until 198.
Frans,
The earliest New Year's issue of
asses that I can definitely prove is Hadrian's in 118; I have conjectured, for reasons I can't explain here, that it was
Trajan who instituted the custom of striking and distributing specific New Year's issues of
asses and bronze medallions. The
asses used for New Year's presents before then will simply have been extracted from ordinary circulation by the intending donors.