Trajan Silver Denarius, RIC II Trajan 38

Monetary Context and Economic Function

When Trajan ascended the imperial throne in 98 AD, the Roman monetary system rested upon the reformed bimetallic and trimetallic structure established under Augustus and adjusted by later Julio-Claudian and Flavian rulers. The silver denarius functioned as the preeminent unit of account and medium of exchange for high-value everyday transactions, civil administration, military remuneration, and state tax collection. Following the monetary policies of Domitian, who briefly restored the denarius to Augustan purity before a minor retrenchment, and the short reign of Nerva, Trajan maintained a stable silver standard during his earliest years. Denarii produced around 100 AD, including RIC II Trajan 38, were struck at an average weight centered near 3.2 to 3.4 grams, with an intrinsic fineness typically hovering around 90 to 93 percent silver before subsequent debasements later in his reign. The production of RIC II Trajan 38 coincided with a period of financial reorganization in Italy and across the provinces. Trajan directed considerable state expenditure toward the alimentary foundation, public infrastructure, and preparations for military campaigning along the Danubian frontier. The issuance of denarii carrying the image of Pax underscored the political narrative of internal concord and material prosperity, even as the administration marshaled resources. In economic terms, this issue served not merely as ideological communication but as an indispensable transactional vehicle, facilitating state disbursements that rapidly permeated the monetary networks of the Roman world.

Mint Organization and Production Methods

The entire known series of RIC II Trajan 38 was produced at the central imperial mint in Rome, which operated under strict administrative oversight by the imperial bureaucracy. During this period, the mint employed teams of skilled celatores (die-engravers), signatores, and suppostores who executed the coining process manually using hinged or individual upper and lower dies. Blanks were cast in spherical or flattened forms, heated to improve ductility, and struck between hand-carved bronze or iron dies. Die axis alignment for this type exhibits the customary Roman imperial orientation, commonly aligned at six o'clock or twelve o'clock, reflecting standardized die positioning within the mint workshops (officinae). Although specific officina marks were not explicitly engraved on the flans during this phase of Trajan's coinage, stylistic analyses by modern numismatists demonstrate that multiple engraving hands participated in cutting the dies for this reverse subject. Engravers at Rome followed strict stylistic conventions for imperial portraiture, rendering Trajan's realistic features, strong jawline, and straight hair combed forward onto the brow in keeping with official prototypes distributed from the capital. The output of the Rome mint in 100 AD was vast, supplying coin stock to regional treasuries and military paymasters across the empire.

Obverse Design and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC II Trajan 38 features a right-facing portrait of the emperor Trajan. He is depicted bare-necked with a laurel wreath tied at the back of the head, the ties falling neatly downward along the nape of the neck. The portrait reflects the realistic classicism characteristic of Trajan's early official coinage, departing from the pronounced Flavian verism of Domitian and the frail, elderly depictions of Nerva. Trajan is presented as a mature, resolute leader, characterized by a low, flat-topped cranium, straight-cut hair combed down to the forehead, a prominent nose, firm mouth, and strong chin. Die variations across surviving specimens display subtle differences in the truncation of the neck, the fullness of the cheek, and the spacing of the wreath leaves, demonstrating that multiple dies were cut to sustain regular production. The obverse field is enclosed by an uninterrupted Latin inscription that runs clockwise from the lower left, serving both as an identification of the sovereign and as a formal proclamation of his imperial titles and lineage.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse design of RIC II Trajan 38 depicts the goddess Pax standing facing left. She is fully draped in a long stola and wearing a delicate wreath upon her head. In her extended right hand, she holds upward an olive branch (ramus), the quintessential Greco-Roman symbol of peace and reconciliation. In her left arm, she cradles a cornucopiae (horn of plenty) filled with fruits and ears of grain, terminating in a curling horn pointing downward. The pairing of the olive branch and the cornucopiae encapsulates the foundational ideological promise of the Roman state: that external military peace secured by the emperor naturally engenders domestic fertility, commercial stability, and agricultural bounty. Pax was a recurring motif throughout the Flavian and Nerva-Antonine eras, but in the context of 100 AD, her appearance signaled civil tranquility after the political anxieties of Nerva's brief tenure and the Praetorian unrest of 97 AD. The posture of Pax on this type is stately and classical, rendered with balanced drapery folds that demonstrate the high technical caliber of the Rome mint's die-cutters during the turn of the second century.

Epigraphy and Titulature

The legends on RIC II Trajan 38 provide essential chronological and political evidence for the issue. The obverse legend reads IMP CAES NERVA TRAIAN AVG GERM, an abbreviated formula resolving as Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Augustus Germanicus. This inscription emphasizes Trajan's legal adoption by Nerva, establishing dynastic legitimacy, while celebrating his military victory over the Germanic tribes along the Rhine, which had earned him the victory title Germanicus late in 97 AD. The reverse legend reads P M TR P COS III P P, expanding to Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate, Consul Tertium, Pater Patriae. The inclusion of Pontifex Maximus confirms his role as chief priest of the Roman state religion, while Pater Patriae reflects the honorific Father of the Country, which Trajan accepted in 98 AD. The critical chronological anchor is COS III (Consul for the third time), which firmly places the production of this type in 100 AD, when Trajan assumed his third ordinary consulship alongside Sextus Julius Frontinus. The epigraphy is rendered in clean, square Roman imperial capitals, executed with uniform lettering and carefully proportioned spacing around the coin borders.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the fundamental classification of The Roman Imperial Coinage, this denarius is listed as RIC II Trajan 38. In Bernhard Woytek's modern corpus Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (MIR 14), early Trajanic denarii are analyzed within precise chronological groups based on the evolution of imperial titulature. Trajan held his third consulship solely during the year 100 AD before entering his fourth consulship on January 1, 101 AD (COS IIII). Consequently, denarii bearing the reverse legend P M TR P COS III P P belong strictly to the production window of 100 AD. RIC II Trajan 38 forms part of a cohesive thematic series struck that year featuring various personifications, including Pax, Vesta, Concordia, and Justitia, alongside military deities such as Mars and Hercules. While closely related issues show Pax seated or Pax holding a caduceus, RIC 38 is defined specifically by Pax standing left, holding a raised branch and cornucopiae. The type ceased production at the end of 100 AD when the mint transitioned to the COS IIII series to mark the start of Trajan's next consulship and the onset of the First Dacian campaign.

Circulation Patterns and Archaeological Evidence

Denarii of RIC II Trajan 38 circulated extensively throughout the Roman Empire, as evidenced by their frequent appearance in hoard deposits and excavated contexts across Britain, Gaul, the Rhine frontier, the Danube basin, and the Levant. Because silver denarii enjoyed widespread acceptance and uniform legal tender status across all imperial provinces, specimens produced in Rome traveled rapidly in military purses and merchant coin-pouches. In the second century AD, silver of Trajan's early standard circulated side by side with older Flavian issues and the subsequent massive issues funded by the Dacian spoils. Wear patterns on surviving examples in later hoards, such as deposits buried during the Antonine or Severan periods, show that RIC 38 remained in active commercial circulation for decades. Trajan's major recall and melting of worn Republican and early imperial pre-Neronian silver around 107 AD left his own post-98 AD issues as dominant components of the imperial silver pool until the progressive currency debasements of the late second and third centuries AD led to the hoarding and eventual displacement of early high-grade denarii.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. III: Nerva to Hadrian. BMCRE III, Trajan, pp. 38-40
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II Trajan 38. ric.2.tr.38
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 248, no. 38
4. Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117), Moneta Imperii Romani 14. MIR 14, type 49a