Hadrian Silver Denarius, RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 64

Monetary Context and Imperial Accession

The accession of Hadrian in August AD 117 occurred under urgent military and administrative circumstances. Trajan had died at Selinus in Cilicia while returning to Rome, leaving the empire committed to extensive, contested conquests across Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Dacia, alongside serious uprisings in the Jewish diaspora across the eastern Mediterranean. Hadrian was acclaimed by the legions at Antioch and sought immediate recognition from the Senate in Rome. The imperial denarius formed the premier silver medium through which financial obligations to the army, administrative payments across provinces, and commercial exchanges within major urban centers were conducted. A transition of supreme imperium necessitated an immediate, coordinated output of precious-metal coinage bearing the new emperor's name, titles, and political programme. In the Roman monetary system of the early second century AD, the denarius operated at a stable tariff of sixteen bronze asses or four sestertii, serving as the essential economic vehicle for civic transactions and military pay. By ordering an immediate striking of silver denominations at Rome, the imperial administration reaffirmed its commitment to monetary stability and promptly integrated Hadrian into the established fiscal apparatus.

Production Standards and the Rome Mint

This specific denarius type was produced exclusively by the central mint located in Rome. In AD 117, the Rome mint was organized into specialized workshops, or officinae, that operated under the supervision of equestrian procurators. The technical production involved preparing high-purity silver planchets cast in clay or stone molds, which were subsequently struck between hand-carved intaglio bronze or iron dies. The metallurgic standards adhered closely to the Trajanic reform parameters, maintaining an average weight hovering around 3.2 to 3.4 grams and an average silver fineness of approximately 89 to 90 percent. Surviving specimens of RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 64 demonstrate high engraving competence, characterized by finely proportioned lettering, controlled relief, and carefully centered die alignments. The rapid commissioning of these inaugural dies indicates that the imperial mint administration was supplied with official portrait models from Syria shortly after news of Trajan's death reached Italy, allowing the celators to cut accurate dies within weeks of the formal accession.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Portraiture

The obverse design of RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 64 features a right-facing bust of Hadrian wearing a laurel wreath, with a bare chest and light drapery visible over his far shoulder. This portrait style belongs to the earliest stylistic group of Hadrianic coinage, in which the engravers had not yet settled on the fully developed, heroic, and heavily bearded busts characteristic of his later reign. Instead, the facial features present a relatively lean profile, closely trimmed beard, and prominent jawline, reflecting the artistic transition between late Trajanic portraiture and Hadrian's mature likeness. The presence of the laurel wreath signifies victory and imperium, while the bare chest evokes heroic connotations drawn from Hellenistic ruler iconography, subtly softened by the vestigial shoulder drapery. The die cutting exhibits exceptional attention to detail in the rendering of individual hair curls and the laurel ties extending behind the head.

Reverse Iconography and the Personification of Pax

The reverse of the coin presents a standing personification of Pax, the Roman goddess of peace. She stands turned to the left, dressed in a draped stola, holding an olive branch in her right hand and supporting a filled cornucopia in her left arm. Below her feet in the exergue appears the explicit label PAX. The selection of Pax for Hadrian's inaugural coinage carried profound political significance in late AD 117. While Trajan had pursued relentless territorial expansion that strained imperial finances and troop logistics, Hadrian immediately adopted a defensive foreign policy, withdrawing Roman forces from Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Armenia to consolidate sustainable imperial borders along the Euphrates and Danube. The visual pairing of the olive branch, symbolizing the cessation of military hostilities, and the cornucopia, representing agricultural bounty and economic security, communicated to both the Senate and the populace that the new administration intended to restore internal stability, prosperity, and peace after years of continuous warfare.

Inscriptions, Titles, and Adoptive Pedigree

The epigraphic composition of this issue is divided between the obverse and reverse fields, creating a continuous biographical narrative across both faces of the flan. The obverse legend reads IMP CAES TRAIAN HADRIANO AVG DIVI TRA, expressing Hadrian's full adoptive name in the dative case or beginning a continuous dedicatory formulation: Imperatori Caesari Traiano Hadriano Augusto, Divi Traiani. The reverse takes up the grammatical thread with PARTH F DIVI NER NEP P M TR P COS, concluding in the exergue with PAX. Unabbreviated, this titles him as Parthici Filio, Divi Nervae Nepoti, Pontifici Maximo, Tribunicia Potestate, Consuli, with the personification named as Pax. This elaborate titular formula directly addressed the political controversy surrounding Hadrian's adoption, which had occurred on Trajan's deathbed under the supervision of Empress Plotina. By styling himself as the son of the deified Trajan Victor of Parthia and the grandson of the deified Nerva, Hadrian asserted an unbroken, legitimate line of succession sanctioned by the divine rulers before him.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the modern classification system, this denarius is designated as RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 64, replacing earlier references in the first edition of the Roman Imperial Coinage where Hadrian's inaugural silver was arranged without modern die-study sequencing. Paul Strack's foundational study of Hadrian's coinage categorized these early pieces under his Reichspragungen of AD 117, recognizing them as an ephemeral struck series produced between Hadrian's formal accession in August and the close of the calendar year. The type is closely associated with neighboring denarius issues bearing identical reverse legends but depicting different personifications such as Justitia, Pietas, and Concordia, or military motifs representing adoption. The absence of a second consulship numeral on this type confirms that it was produced before January 1, AD 118, when Hadrian assumed his second consulship (COS II), after which all subsequent imperial denarii systematically updated his titulature to reflect that administrative advancement.

Hoard Evidence and Monetary Circulation

Denarii of RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 64 entered circulation across the Western and Danubian provinces as part of regular military transfers and state expenditure. Because this specific type was issued for only a few months during AD 117, its output was substantially smaller than the massive series struck during Hadrian's second and third consulships. Nevertheless, specimens appear reliably in major second-century and early third-century silver hoards discovered in Britannia, Gaul, the Rhine frontier, and the Balkan provinces. In hoards such as those from Falkirk in Scotland or the Shapwick hoard in Britain, AD 117 accession denarii frequently show moderate to heavy wear consistent with several decades of continuous commercial circulation alongside older Trajanic and Flavian denarii. Because Trajan and Hadrian preserved a stable silver standard, early Hadrianic denarii remained active within the currency pool until the debasements of the Severan era led to the gradual hoarding and melting of pre-Severan silver coinages.

References

1. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume II, Part 3: From Hadrian to Antoninus Pius (AD 117-138) - Hadrian. pp. 82-88, no. 64
2. The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage: From the Reform of Nero to the Reform of Trajan. pp. 520-535
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 340, no. 12
4. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 64. Type ric.2_3(2).hdn.64
5. Untersuchungen zur romischen Reichspragung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil II: Die Reichspragung zur Zeit des Hadrian. pp. 42-49