Sabina Silver Denarius, RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 2576

Monetary Context and Imperial Policy

During the reign of Hadrian (AD 117 to 138), the silver denarius functioned as the cornerstone of daily commerce, state expenditure, and military remuneration across the Mediterranean. The imperial denarius under Hadrian followed the metallurgical standard stabilized following Domitian's reforms and subsequent minor Trajanic adjustments, struck at approximately 1/96th of a Roman pound (libra), yielding an intended theoretical mass around 3.20 to 3.40 grams with an alloy fineness hovering around 80 to 82 percent silver. Issues struck for the imperial women served an essential political and symbolic purpose alongside their transactional utility. Although Sabina received the title of Augusta in AD 128, substantial emissions in her name proliferated through the 130s. The type designated as RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 2576 represents an emission struck late in the reign, assigned to the chronological bracket of AD 136 to 138. In this period, succession concerns were paramount; Hadrian's deteriorating health, the adoption of Lucius Aelius Caesar in AD 136, and the death of Sabina in late AD 136 or early AD 137 heightened the ideological necessity of projecting dynastic stability and legitimate continuity. By placing Venus Genetrix on Sabina's denarii, the administration tied the ruling house directly to the mythical origins of the Roman state, invoking divine grace and female virtue as imperial virtues guaranteeing the preservation of the Pax Romana.

Production Standards and Mint Operation

The entire production of RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 2576 is attributed exclusively to the imperial mint situated in the city of Rome. During Hadrian's later years, the mint at Rome operated in multiple officinae (workshops), which organized the production of gold aurei, silver denarii, and multiple denominations of bronze aes coinage. Silver flans were cast from prepared alloy ingots, likely using open or bivalve molds that formed circular blanks, which were then adjusted for weight before hot-striking between intaglio dies. The weight of individual surviving specimens fluctuates due to ancient manufacturing tolerances, with typical examples resting between 3.00 and 3.45 grams and diameters ranging between 17 and 19 millimeters. Die orientation for this issue is predominantly at six o'clock (inverted) or twelve o'clock (parallel), conforming to the regular practice of the Rome mint during the High Principate. The engraving style of this type is distinguished by refined classicism, characteristic of Hadrianic art, displaying clean linear execution in the drapery and a sensitive, individualized portraiture of the empress.

Obverse Iconography and Coiffure

The obverse of RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 2576 features a right-facing bust of Sabina, draped and wearing a decorative stephane or crescentic diadem. Her hair is rendered in the distinctive late coiffure associated with her later issues, combed smoothly back from the forehead and temples and drawn down into a queue or plait that falls along the nape of the neck. This hairstyle departed from the complex, towering hairstyles favored by her mother Matidia and great-aunt Marciana during the Trajanic period, reflecting a deliberate return to Classical Greek simplicity promoted by Hadrian's cultural philhellenism. The portrait depicts Sabina with serene and idealized facial planes, an aquiline nose, and an unlined countenance, deliberately harmonizing the individual likeness of the Augusta with classical artistic ideals. The drapery across the truncation of the bust is carefully detailed, bunched neatly over the shoulder, providing an elegant base for the portrait.

Reverse Iconography of Venus Genetrix

The reverse design features Venus standing towards the right, her body rendered in an elegant, classically derived stance. She holds a fold of her drapery with her right hand, lifting it delicately from her shoulder, while extending an apple in her left hand. This stance derives from the famous fifth-century BC statuary type of Aphrodite attributed to Callimachus, popularized across Roman art as Venus Genetrix. In Roman religion and imperial ideology, Venus Genetrix was celebrated as the mother of Aeneas and the divine patroness of the Julian line, and by extension, the imperial house. On Sabina's coinage, the attribute of the apple references both the Judgement of Paris, affirming Venus as the foremost embodiment of divine beauty, and her agricultural and generative associations with fertility. By depicting Venus adjusting her palla or peplos, the image balances divine sensuality with the modest, draped deportment expected of a matronly empress, presenting Sabina as the mortal mirror of the goddess of love, generation, and concord.

Epigraphy and Legends

The epigraphy of this type is executed in clear, balanced Roman lapidary capitals. The obverse inscription reads SABINA AVGVSTA, curving along the border from the lower left to the upper right. This legend represents the streamlined imperial titulature adopted for Sabina, omitting patronymics, Hadrian's name, or elaborate lineage markers in favor of a concise statement of her sovereign rank as Augusta. The reverse bears the dative dedicatory legend VENERI GENETRICI ('To Venus the Ancestress' or 'To Venus who Brings Forth'), positioned along the left and right fields. The dative grammatical case indicates an explicit dedication on behalf of the empress and the Roman people to the goddess, offering veneration in return for continuous divine protection and blessing upon the imperial house. Unlike earlier Roman coinages, this type carries neither mintmarks nor explicit officina numerals, as the Rome mint had not yet instituted administrative marks on precious metal issues during the second century.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the original 1926 classification of Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC II) by Harold Mattingly and Edward Sydenham, Sabina's Venus Genetrix types were classified under broad numbers (such as RIC 396). The revised second edition corpus, published by Richard Abdy and Peter Harling in 2019 as RIC II, Part 3, established a substantially more refined chronological framework based on die studies, portrait styles, and coiffure evolutions. Within this updated typology, RIC 2576 is firmly placed in Sabina's final emission phase, dated from AD 136 to 138. This specific catalogue type is distinguished from related issues by the combination of the queue coiffure with stephane, the obverse legend SABINA AVGVSTA, and the right-facing Venus holding an apple and raising drapery. Related contemporaneous variants depict Venus standing left holding a transverse sceptre, or feature Sabina veiled, a detail that marks posthumous consecratio or near-consecration emissions. RIC 2576 represents the culmination of her lifetime coin types before the introduction of the DIVA AVG SABINA series following her deification in AD 137.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Survival

Denarii of type RIC 2576 circulated widely throughout the provinces of the Roman Empire, as confirmed by archaeological finds and numismatic hoards dating from the mid-second through the early third century AD. Because the silver content of Hadrianic denarii remained relatively high compared to the debased issues of the Severan period, these coins remained in active commercial circulation for decades. Hoard evidence across Britain, Gaul, the Rhine frontier, and the Danubian provinces regularly records Sabina's later denarii intermixed with issues of Antoninus Pius, Faustina the Elder, and Marcus Aurelius. Many recovered specimens exhibit moderate to heavy surface wear and minor edge chipping consistent with prolonged circulation before concealment. Over time, particularly following the currency debasements under Septimius Severus and Caracalla, coins of this standard were systematically withdrawn, hoarded for bullion value, or melted down in imperial re-coinage operations.

References

1. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume II, Part 3: Hadrian. p. 268, no. 2576
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume III: Nerva to Hadrian. pp. 358-360, nos. 944-946
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 2576. ric.2_3(2).hdn.2576
4. Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil II: Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Hadrian. pp. 195-201