Double Majorina

"Double Majorina" (plural: majorinae) is the name commonly given to the Ae1's issued by Magnentius from the end of 352 until early 353. Thus they were only struck at the mints that Magnentius controlled at the time: Ambianum, Treveri, Lugdunum, and Arelate. Magnentius had abandoned Rome and Aquileia in September of 352. The Double Majorinae are bronze coins (only trace amounts of silver), of an average weight of 8.33 grams and a diameter between 26 and 28 millimeters. Their weight does not fully justify the name "double", since the large majorina was struck at 5.2 grams, but they were certainly more than 1.5 times the normal majorina.  Although struck in both the name of Magnentius and his brother, Decentius, they all bear the same reverse, the symbol of Christ (the Christogram) flanked by the Greek letters 'alpha' and 'omega'.

When Constantius II threatened Gaul with invasion in late 352, Magnentius began to issue coins bearing the totally Christian reverse design, the first time in Roman history that the main design of a coin was Christian. The Greek letters 'alpha' and 'omega', the first and the last of the Greek alphabet, were an allusion to the words of the risen Christ as recorded in the Biblical book of Revelation, chapter 22, verse 13, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." The reverse inscription was "SALVS DD NN AVG ET CAES" (roughly translated - 'The Safety of Our Lords the Augustus and Caesar' - meaning Magnentius and Decentius). The 'alpha' and 'omega' may have been an attempt to highlight the fact that Constantius II was an Arian, an eastern heresy which talked of a 'created' Christ, instead of the eternal Christ of orthodoxy favored in the west.

The "double majorina" term applies only to the largest of the three modules in which the above reverse was struck. It was struck as a large majorina, a "small majorina", and the double majorina (6.67, 4.46, and 8.33 grams respectively). Although the "Christogram" reverse dominated Magnentius' coinage from the end of 352 until the end of his reign (and life!) in August, 353, the production of doubles soon gave way to the 6.67 gram coins which in turn gave way to the 4.46 grams coins. The emergency nature of the final issues in 353 is revealed in that Magnentius' coins struck at 6.67 grams were usually just the large dies struck on smaller flans, giving a "clipped" appearance to the final product.