Hadrian Dupondius: RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 867

Monetary Context

During the reign of Hadrian, the Roman monetary system functioned as a multi-tiered bimetallic and base-metal currency structure designed to meet diverse fiscal and commercial demands. At the upper tier, gold aurei and silver denarii sustained high-value transactions, military pay, and administrative revenue collection. Everyday retail exchanges, market trade, and local accounting relied heavily on the token base-metal denominations produced from copper and brass alloys. Within this base-metal hierarchy, the sestertius occupied the primary accounting position, valued at four bronze asses, while the dupondius held a tariffed value of two asses. Below the dupondius, the as, semis, and quadrans facilitated micro-transactions across urban and rural markets. The dupondius occupied an essential intermediary role, enabling consumers and merchants to make change without expending high-value precious metals. In traditional imperial practice established under Augustus, the dupondius was struck in orichalcum, a golden-toned copper-zinc brass, which distinguished it visibly from the pure red-copper as. Although both denominations were occasionally struck on flans of comparable physical module depending on workshop tolerances, the intrinsic hue and deliberate design elements ensured that consumers could readily differentiate between a two-as piece and a one-as coin. In the middle years of Hadrian's principate, particularly around AD 126 to AD 127, the Roman treasury maintained steady bronze output to ensure liquidity throughout the Italian peninsula and the western provinces, where base-metal currency circulated extensively alongside provincial coinages.

Production and Mints

Production of RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 867 was centralized entirely at the imperial mint of Rome. Operating under the administrative oversight of the imperial equestrian bureaucracy and the traditional authority of the tresviri monetales, the urban mint maintained strict technical standards for alloy composition and flan preparation. The metal employed for this issue was orichalcum, formulated by the cementation process where copper was heated with zinc-bearing calamine ore and charcoal in sealed crucibles. The resulting brass alloy yielded a distinct golden sheen, providing immediate visual differentiation from contemporary red-copper asses. Blanks were cast in individual moulds or prepared from cast sprues before being trimmed and hammered between engraved dies. Striking was performed manually by teams of celatores, flan placers, and hammerers, with dies carefully aligned, typically conforming to an upright or inverted medal orientation of approximately twelve or six o'clock. The target weight standard for Hadrianic dupondii generally hovered between eleven and fourteen grams, with flan diameters averaging between twenty-six and twenty-eight millimeters, though significant individual variations arose due to manual flan adjustment and alloy variances. The mint operated through several organized officinae, or workshops, which coordinated portrait bust production and reverse types to fulfill prescribed imperial quotas. The fine plastic modeling of Hadrian's mature portraiture on this issue exemplifies the high technical proficiency achieved by the urban engravers during the late 120s AD.

Obverse Design and Portraiture

The obverse of this dupondius displays a right-facing portrait of Hadrian wearing a laurel wreath. Hadrian's numismatic portraiture represents a distinct aesthetic departure from the clean-shaven, idealized realism of the Julio-Claudians and Flavians, or the severe martial countenance of his predecessor Trajan. Hadrian adopted a full, closely trimmed beard and curly hair in the manner of Greek philosophers and statesmen, a stylistic choice that reflected his personal philhellenism while signaling intellectual refinement, mature gravitas, and civic culture. By AD 126 to AD 127, the portrait style had transitioned from the youthful vigor of his earliest accessional issues into an established, authoritative likeness. Engravers at the Rome mint rendered the emperor's features with prominent bone structure, deep-set eyes, and delicately curled locks held neatly by the ribbons of the laurel wreath, which drape toward the nape of the neck. An important typological feature of RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 867 is the depiction of a laureate head rather than the radiate crown that traditionally identified the dupondius denomination since the Neronian era. While the radiate crown frequently marked the double denomination on both dupondii and antoniniani, the Rome mint under Hadrian produced significant series of dupondii featuring laureate heads or bare heads, relying primarily on the distinct brass metal composition of the orichalcum flan and specific reverse pairings to establish the denomination within circulation.

Reverse Iconography and Personification

The reverse design of this catalogue type features the standing figure of Fides, the personification of loyalty, good faith, and moral integrity. Fides is shown turned toward the right, draped in traditional long stola and mantle. In her hands, she cradles attributes symbolizing agricultural plenty and sustained nourishment: ears of standing grain or corn in one hand and an offering dish or basket laden with freshly harvested fruit in the other. In ancient Roman religion and civic ideology, Fides represented far more than personal fidelity; she embodied the sacred mutual trust binding the emperor, the Roman army, the senate, and the citizenry. Her association with agricultural produce reflects the concept of Fides Publica or Fides Augusta as the guarantor of abundant supply and imperial stability. By preserving social harmony and administrative integrity, the imperial regime ensured that fields remained fertile, shipments arrived safely from Egypt and North Africa, and the urban grain supply remained secure. Flanking the personification in the lower fields is the traditional senatorial formula S C, indicating Senatus Consulto. The composition balances religious devotion with tangible civic benefits, reminding the coin-handling public that imperial governance directly underpinned the peace and material prosperity of the Roman state.

Inscriptions and Epigraphy

The epigraphic program of RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 867 demonstrates the streamlined titulature characteristic of Hadrian's middle coinage. The obverse legend reads HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS, rendered in clear, unpunctuated capital lettering running along the periphery. Early in his reign, Hadrian utilized lengthy titular formulas enumerating his accessional honours, descent from the deified Trajan, and paternal accolades. By approximately AD 124 to AD 125, the mint eliminated these cumbersome strings of titles in favour of the succinct, dignified formula HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS, which conveyed supreme imperial authority without decorative excess. The reverse inscription is similarly concise, displaying COS III in the upper or peripheral field and S C divided across the lower left and right fields. The abbreviation COS III refers to Hadrian's third consulship, which he entered on January 1, AD 119. Following established imperial precedent, Hadrian refused further ordinary consulships after AD 119, meaning that the numeral III remained permanently frozen in his titulature for the remainder of his life. Consequently, COS III does not directly date the issue to AD 119, but rather provides an absolute terminus post quem. The letters S C represent Senatus Consulto, signifying that the base-metal issue was produced by decree of the Roman Senate. While the imperial administration controlled the mint, the retention of S C honoured the long-standing constitutional division of monetary authority, conferring traditional civic legitimacy upon the orichalcum dupondius.

Types and Chronological Sequence

In the updated chronological framework established by Richard Abdy and Peter Pfisterer in the second edition of Roman Imperial Coinage Volume II, Part 3, type 867 is assigned precisely to the years AD 126 and AD 127. This precise chronological placement is derived from rigorous die studies, hoard evidence, and stylistic evolutions within the portraiture of the Rome mint. Earlier nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century arrangements, such as the original 1926 classification by Harold Mattingly and Edward Sydenham, grouped large bodies of Hadrian's COS III bronze coinage into undifferentiated, broad chronological brackets spanning AD 119 to AD 138. Modern scholarship has disentangled these series by analyzing portrait transformations, workshop allocations, and evolving flan dimensions. The issue sits within a coordinated emission celebrating imperial virtues and cosmic order, alongside parallel issues featuring related personifications such as Salus, Pietas, and Providentia. The specific pairing of the laureate head with Fides holding corn ears and fruit distinguishes type 867 from contemporary asses and sestertii featuring identical or related reverse types. While identical reverse dies were occasionally shared across closely related workshops, type 867 represents a defined brass dupondius emission of modest survival, reflecting a targeted phase of base-metal output prior to Hadrian's subsequent travels and the introduction of later territorial and provincial allegories in the 130s AD.

Circulation and Archaeological Patterns

Once released from the mint of Rome, orichalcum dupondii such as RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 867 entered widespread circulation throughout the western territories of the Roman Empire. Base-metal coinage circulated extensively within Italy, Gaul, Hispania, and the Rhine-Danube military zones, functioning as the primary transactional medium in urban fora, military vici, and rural estates. Archaeological finds indicate that bronze coins of the high empire enjoyed exceptionally prolonged lifespans, frequently remaining in active circulation for fifty to one hundred years or more. Over decades of handling, the brass surface of orichalcum dupondii gradually degraded, stripping away the initial golden luster and causing the relief of fine features like the corn ears and fruit to wear smooth. In regions lacking fresh base-metal supply, earlier dupondii continued to circulate until the mid-to-late third century AD, when hyperinflation and debasement rendered traditional token bronzes economically obsolete. Hoard evidence demonstrates that dupondii were regularly accumulated in mixed savings deposits alongside sestertii and asses, often hidden during periods of local political instability or barbarian incursions. Single finds of type 867 recovered from excavated military settlements and domestic sites underscore its regular utility in daily commercial life, validating the role of the dupondius as an indispensable component of the Roman imperial monetary economy.

References

1. The Base-Metal Coinage of Hadrian: Chronology and Typology. pp. 45-68
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. III: Nerva to Hadrian. Hadrian Base-Metal Issues, pp. cxxxiv-cxlvii
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 867. RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 867
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II, Part 3: From Hadrian to Antoninus Pius (AD 117-138) - Hadrian. Type 867, pp. 112-115