Trajan Bronze Sestertius RIC II Trajan 671

Monetary Context and Denominational Function

During the reign of Trajan, the sestertius served as the flagship denomination of the Roman base-metal currency system. Valued at four asses or one quarter of a silver denarius, the sestertius was struck in orichalcum, a golden-toned copper alloy containing zinc. While silver denarii and gold aurei formed the basis for imperial treasury transactions, state payrolls, and military stipends, sestertii provided the essential liquidity for substantial daily retail trade, public contracts, and commercial enterprise across Italy and the western provinces. Because of its broad flan, which typically ranged between 32 and 35 millimeters in diameter, and an average target mass in the vicinity of 25 to 27 grams, the denomination afforded the imperial administration an expansive canvas for state messaging. Under Trajan, sestertius types were systematically deployed to proclaim public monuments, infrastructural triumphs such as the harbor at Portus, military achievements in Dacia and the East, and civil virtues such as Pax, Abundantia, and Felicitas. The type catalogued as RIC II Trajan 671 belongs to the final phase of Trajanic bronze production, where allegories of prosperity counterbalanced the enormous logistical and financial burdens imposed by ongoing military campaigns in the East.

Mint Attribution and Production Technology

Numismatic consensus attributes the production of RIC II Trajan 671 entirely to the central imperial mint at Rome, known epigraphically as the Moneta Augusti. Unlike eastern provincial coinages in bronze, which were struck at local civic or provincial workshops, Roman imperial sestertii of this period followed strict metrological and artistic standards coordinated by the central administration. The manufacturing process began with the casting of heavy orichalcum blanks in open or bivalve moulds, resulting in slightly beveled flan edges. Blanks were frequently adjusted with files to bring them within acceptable weight limits before being heated to increase metal malleability during striking. Engravers at the Rome mint utilized hardened iron dies cut entirely by hand, employing a variety of chisels, gravers, and punch tools to execute the intricate relief of the imperial portrait and the standing figure of Felicitas. High-relief dies required forceful hammer blows from two or more mint workers, often resulting in minor striking cracks along the flan perimeter or slight off-center alignments. The letters S C, standing for Senatus Consulto (by decree of the Senate), appear prominently in the reverse field, reflecting the constitutional tradition that allocated formal oversight of base-metal coin production to the Senate, even as artistic choice and revenue management remained under imperial control.

Obverse Portraiture and Engraving Style

The obverse of RIC II Trajan 671 features a mature portrait of Trajan facing right, wearing a laurel wreath with ribbon ties extending down the nape of the neck, and drapery visible upon the far shoulder. By AD 114, the official style of the Rome mint had fully transitioned away from the more youthful, veristic portraits of the early reign toward an idealized yet muscular heroic image. Engravers depicted the emperor with his characteristic straight-cut fringe of hair across the forehead, deep-set orbital sockets, a prominent straight nose, and a firm, square jaw. The drapery across the neck and shoulder provides a dignified finish to the truncation, softening the martial austerity of the bust while maintaining an impression of sovereign authority. Die studies across late Trajanic sestertii reveal multiple hands among the mint's master celators, producing subtle differences in the treatment of the laurel leaves, the fullness of the facial planes, and the positioning of the legend terminals relative to the bust. Despite these stylistic nuances, the portraiture consistently conveys gravitas and unyielding resolve, capturing the emperor during the pinnacle of his authority as commander-in-chief of the Roman world.

Reverse Iconography: The Imagery of Felicitas

The reverse design presents Felicitas draped in a long stola, standing with her body oriented toward the left. In her upraised right hand she holds a winged caduceus, the ancient herald's staff representing peaceful negotiation, commerce, and divine protection. In her left arm she cradles a cornucopiae, overflowing with fruits and grain to symbolize agricultural abundance and economic plenty. In Roman state religion and imperial ideology, Felicitas embodied the divinely granted state of prosperous well-being that flowed directly from the emperor's virtuous rule. During the later years of Trajan's reign, when immense military resources were committed to the annexation of Armenia and Mesopotamia, the appearance of Felicitas served a vital political purpose. The coin reassured the populace of Rome and the Italian peninsula that despite the geographical distance of the campaigns, domestic stability, commercial vitality, and material prosperity remained intact under the emperor's stewardship. The figure is balanced symmetrically within the circular flan, flanked by the bold letters S and C, providing an aesthetic equilibrium between human form, symbolic attributes, and institutional authority.

Epigraphy and Legend Analysis

The inscriptions on RIC II Trajan 671 are critical for establishing both its constitutional framing and its chronological position. The obverse reads IMP CAES TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P, resolving to Imperatori Caesari Traiano Optimo Augusto Germanico Dacico, Pontifici Maximo, Tribunicia Potestate, Consuli Sexto, Patri Patriae. The formulation marks an epigraphic shift: the dative case (Traiano Optimo) indicates a dedicatory posture, framing the issue as an honorific dedication to the emperor by the Senate and people of Rome. The inclusion of the cognomen Optimus, formally decreed to Trajan in the autumn of AD 114, establishes a firm terminus post quem for the type. Furthermore, the absence of the military title Parthicus, which Trajan assumed in early AD 116, suggests that this specific legend group was introduced between late AD 114 and late 115, though some issues with earlier titulature may have continued until the end of the reign in AD 117. The reverse legend, SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS, completes the dedicatory syntax begun on the obverse, making explicit that the Senate and the Roman people are dedicating the coin and its associated virtues to their optimal princeps.

Typological Variants and Chronological Placement

Within the corpus of Roman Imperial Coinage, RIC II Trajan 671 is situated among the extensive bronze emissions struck under Trajan's sixth consulship (COS VI). Bernhard Woytek's comprehensive die study and arrangement in Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus places these Optimus bronze issues into distinct production phases between AD 114 and 117. Type 671 is distinguished by its specific bust dress and reverse posture: a laureate and draped bust paired with Felicitas standing left with caduceus and cornucopiae, bordered by the SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS legend. It must be distinguished from closely related contemporary types, such as RIC 672, which features a bare chest or differing drapery arrangements, and RIC 673, which depicts Felicitas holding an olive branch or seated on a throne. In earlier Trajanic bronze types from the fifth consulship (AD 103-111), reverse legends typically detailed the imperial titles rather than the formulaic invocation of the Senate and people, underscoring the typological evolution of the late reign. The series represents the final evolution of Trajan's sestertius repertoire prior to his death in Cilicia in August AD 117.

Circulation Patterns and Archaeological Evidence

As a high-value base-metal coin, RIC II Trajan 671 circulated extensively throughout the western provinces of the Roman Empire, including Italia, Gallia, Britannia, Hispania, and the Rhine-Danube military frontiers. Finds recorded in institutional collections, regional archaeological surveys, and hoards demonstrate that sestertii of the High Empire enjoyed exceptional longevity in daily commerce. Because orichalcum did not lose intrinsic metal value through currency fluctuations as rapidly as debased silver, Trajanic sestertii often circulated for several decades, remaining in use well into the reigns of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and the Severan dynasty. Over years of handling, these coins suffered substantial physical attrition, frequently losing surface detail and developing heavy brown, green, or black mineral patinas depending on soil chemistry. Hoards containing bronze coins from the Marcomannic Wars and the third-century crisis regularly contain worn sestertii of Trajan, attesting to their durable utility as stable fractional currency long after the historical events commemorated on their surfaces had passed into imperial memory.

References

1. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 289, no. 671
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II Trajan 671. ric.2.tr.671
3. Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts. Teil I: Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Traian. Type 458
4. Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117) (MIR 14). MIR 14, nos. 488-490