A Roman silver coin issued during the reign of Emperor Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) in the 3rd century AD, worth about 1.5 denarii.
Named after the Roman emperor Caracalla, whose formal name was Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus. The coin was introduced around 215 AD and circulated throughout the Roman Empire. The suffix '-ianus' indicates something belonging to or named after a person.
The antoninianus is a perfect time capsule of economic inflation! Caracalla introduced it as a way to pay soldiers more while actually giving them less precious metal—one of history's earliest examples of currency debasement. Archaeologists use these coins to track trade routes and dating historical sites across three continents.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.