Trajan Silver Denarius RIC II Trajan 252

Monetary Context and Imperial Policy

The issue of the denarius categorized as RIC II Trajan 252 occurred during a pivotal phase of Trajan's monetary administration, centered between his entry into his sixth consulship in AD 112 and the adoption of the title Optimus Augustus in late AD 114. The Roman silver currency of this period operated under standard post-Neronian metrological conventions, although Trajan had instituted significant structural adjustments following the conclusion of the Second Dacian War. The vast influx of bullion captured from the Dacian royal treasury allowed the central administration to finance monumental civic architecture, fund public distributions, and retire older, pre-Neronian silver currency from broad circulation. In the years preceding this issue, the Roman mint engaged in a widespread recall of worn Republican and early imperial silver, re-coining the metal into freshly struck imperial denarii of standardized weight and fineness. Within this active monetary environment, the denarius served as the fundamental accounting and transaction unit for civic taxation, legions' stipends, and interprovincial commerce across the empire. Coins bearing commemorative reverses were not mere presentation medals but fully integrated components of the circulating mass. The striking of RIC II Trajan 252 brought ancestral prestige into mundane market transactions, reminding soldiers, merchants, and provincial subjects that the reigning emperor descended from a patrician commander whose exceptional service had culminated in deification. The issue also paralleled Trajan's extensive restored coin series, which recalled Roman republican and early imperial luminaries to affirm continuity with traditional senatorial virtues.

Mint Location and Manufacturing Technique

RIC II Trajan 252 was produced exclusively at the primary imperial mint located in Rome. During the early second century AD, this facility operated as a highly centralized and organized administrative department under the supervision of equestrian officials and the traditional tresviri monetales. Die-engravers working in the Roman officinae cut dies of exceptionally refined classical execution, characterized by crisp lettering, deep relief, and naturalistic anatomical modeling. Blanks for the denarii were prepared by casting silver alloy flans in open or multi-compartment molds, which were subsequently cleaned, weighed, and heated to maximize malleability prior to striking. Striking was performed manually using hardened iron or bronze dies, with the lower obverse die securely embedded in an anvil while the upper reverse die was positioned by hand and struck with a heavy hammer. This mechanical process generated characteristic radial stress cracks and minor eccentricities of centering on surviving specimens, though the mint maintained strict technical supervision over weight tolerances. Denarii of this period were struck to a theoretical standard of approximately 96 coins per Roman pound (libra), yielding a nominal target weight around 3.2 to 3.4 grams, with an average silver fineness maintained at roughly 88 to 90 percent purity. Die-axis alignment at the Rome mint under Trajan was predominantly fixed at six o'clock (inverted) or twelve o'clock (aligned), reflecting deliberate die control during striking.

Obverse Design and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC II Trajan 252 presents a right-facing portrait bust of Trajan. The emperor is depicted wearing the laurel wreath (corona civica), the principal imperial insignia signifying civic salvation and victorious triumph. The rendering belongs to what modern scholarship classifies as Trajan's late middle portraiture, specifically the Decennalia and post-Decennalia stylistic groups developed at Rome. In this portrait tradition, Trajan is rendered with stern, dignified, and mature features: straight hair combed forward across the forehead in neat, heavy locks, a firm jawline, a prominent nasal bridge, and well-modeled musculature around the neck and cheekbones. The bust is depicted as draped on the far shoulder or draped across the shoulders, showing the folds of the paludamentum or military cloak, which emphasizes the emperor's active persona as supreme imperator and protector of the state. The laurel wreath ties terminate in two distinct ribbons (taeniae) falling along the nape of the neck. The die-cutting achieves a balanced harmony between veristic Roman realism and heroic imperial idealization, portraying a ruler at the height of his administrative authority and military prestige. The obverse field is completely framed by the uninterrupted imperial legend running along the border of fine beads.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse of the coin is devoted to the emperor's biological father, Marcus Ulpius Traianus senior. He is depicted bare-headed and dressed in the formal Roman toga, seated facing left upon a sella curulis (curule chair), with his feet resting securely upon an elevated footstool (suppedaneum). In his extended right hand, he holds a shallow offering dish (patera), while his left hand cradles a vertical sceptre resting on his shoulder or the ground. Every component of this composition is heavily freighted with legal, religious, and political symbolism. The curule chair was the ancestral prerogative of higher curule magistrates (consuls, praetors, and curule aediles), explicitly evoking the elder Trajan's attainment of the consulship and patrician status under the Flavians, as well as his proconsular governing of Asia and Syria. The footstool signifies elevated, quasi-regal majesty, commonly reserved in Roman iconographic conventions for enthroned divinities and consecrated emperors. The patera marks his eternal priestly status and receipt of divine honors through sacrifice, while the sceptre identifies him as an enthroned divinity participating in celestial sovereign authority. Unlike ordinary commemorative coins honoring deceased family members, the explicit designation of Divus Pater placed the elder Trajan among the state pantheon, establishing that the current princeps was the biological son of a consecrated divinity, thereby matching the traditional prestige enjoyed by emperors who were adoptive or biological sons of deified Augusti.

Epigraphy and Epigraphic Expansion

The inscriptions on RIC II Trajan 252 are rendered in sharp Roman square capitals and articulate the full constitutional titles of the emperor on the obverse alongside the solemn consecration of his father on the reverse. The obverse legend reads: IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P. This standard formulation expands in full Latin as: Imperatori Traiano Augusto Germanico Dacico, Pontifici Maximo, Tribunicia Potestate, Consuli Sextum, Patri Patriae. In translation, it designates the coin as issued 'For the Emperor Trajan Augustus, conqueror of the Germans, conqueror of the Dacians, Chief Priest, holding the Tribunician Power, Consul for the sixth time, Father of his Country.' The phrasing in the dative case (Traiano) reflects a dedicatory tone typical of Trajan's later coinage, wherein the senate and Roman people formally honor the princeps. The reverse legend is concise and direct: DIVVS PATER TRAIAN. This expands to Divus Pater Traianus, meaning 'The Divine Father Trajan.' The absence of magistral titles on the reverse emphasizes his transfigured celestial status rather than his temporal cursus honorum, presenting the deceased elder statesman purely as a divine ancestor.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard reference classification of Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham (The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II), this specific silver denarius is designated as RIC II 252. Bernhard Woytek, in his comprehensive modern die and type corpus Moneta Imperii Romani (MIR 14), catalogs this type under issue number 398, placing its production within the precise chronological window of AD 112 to early 114. The chronological terminus post quem is firmly established by the mention of COS VI in the obverse titulature, an office that Trajan assumed on January 1, AD 112. The terminus ante quem is defined by the absence of the coveted imperial title OPTIMO (or Optimus Augustus), which was officially conferred upon Trajan by the senate in August AD 114 and immediately incorporated into all subsequent coin legends struck at Rome. The type belongs to a dedicated dynastic emission that also included an aureus counterpart (RIC II 251) featuring the paired or confronting busts of Divus Pater Traianus and the deified empress Plotina or Diva Nerva, as well as denarii depicting the elder Trajan accompanied by a radiant star. Minor stylistic variants within RIC II 252 exist, primarily involving slight differences in the draping of the obverse bust (from drapery on the left shoulder to full chest mantle) and subtle variations in the posture of the seated figure or spacing of the reverse lettering across die pairs.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Modern Preservation

Denarii of type RIC II Trajan 252 entered the broad monetary stream during a period of massive coin circulation across the Roman Mediterranean. Hoard evidence from Britain, Gaul, the Rhine-Danube frontier, and the Levant demonstrates that Trajanic silver remained in active commercial use for generations. While commemorative and divine-ancestor issues carried specific propagandistic overtones upon release, they were struck on the identical weight and fineness standards as regular imperial issues and were treated indifferently as commercial currency. Many specimens found in second- and third-century coin hoards exhibit moderate to extensive circulation wear, indicating that they circulated alongside the subsequent issues of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. Trajanic silver was finally retired or melted down during the severe inflationary debasements of the mid-third century AD, particularly during the reigns of Decius, Trebonianus Gallus, and Valerian, when older, higher-grade silver denarii were hoarded or systematically recoined into billon antoniniani. In modern public collections and institutional trays, well-preserved examples of RIC II Trajan 252 are moderately scarce compared to Trajan's abundant Dacian-trophy and personification types, making the issue an essential document for the study of Roman dynastic legitimation and provincial aristocratic integration into the imperial core.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum (BMCRE), Vol. III: Nerva to Hadrian. pp. 90-91, nos. 415-416
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE): RIC II Trajan 252. ric.2.tr.252
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 261, no. 252
4. Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117 n. Chr.), Moneta Imperii Romani (MIR) Band 14. MIR 14, no. 398