Trajan Silver Denarius RIC II Trajan 120

Monetary and Historical Context

The production of RIC II Trajan 120 occurred during a critical period of fiscal restructuring and military triumph for the Roman Empire. Following the initial Dacian campaign of 101 to 102 AD, the Roman treasury acquired immense influxes of precious metals, particularly silver and gold captured from Decebalus and the rich Dacian mines. This wealth funded massive infrastructure projects in Rome, provincial public works, and extensive military operations leading up to the final annexation of Dacia in 106 AD. Concurrently, imperial authorities managed a substantial re-coinage program. Older, heavily worn Republican and Julio-Claudian silver denarii that remained in active circulation were progressively withdrawn, melted down, and reissued at the post-Neronian weight standard. RIC II Trajan 120 was struck within this buoyant monetary environment, serving as standard currency for military payrolls, bureaucratic stipends, and civilian trade. The selection of Felicitas for the reverse imagery expressed the prevailing political ideology of the era: military victory was not pursued as an end in itself, but rather as the necessary foundation for lasting internal stability, civic well-being, and material prosperity throughout the Roman world.

Production and Mints

RIC II Trajan 120 was produced exclusively at the imperial mint located in Rome. During the early second century AD, the Rome mint was a highly structured, centralized manufacturing facility organized into distinct workshops known as officinae. These workshops coordinated the preparation of flans, the hand-engraving of dies, and the striking of coins under the administration of the equestrian procurator monetae. Denarii of this type were manufactured on cast silver blanks that were manually struck between an anvil die and a handheld punch die. The metallurgical composition followed the Trajanic reform standard, yielding an average coin weight between approximately 3.10 and 3.40 grams with a diameter typically falling within 18 to 20 millimetres. The silver fineness hovered around eighty to eighty-five percent, representing a slight and deliberate downward adjustment from the higher purity of early Flavio-Trajanic issues. Die studies of Trajan's fifth-consulship coinage indicate that the mint maintained high production volumes, utilizing numerous obverse and reverse die pairings to sustain the logistical demands of the empire.

Obverse Design and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC II Trajan 120 presents a right-facing portrait bust of Trajan. The emperor is depicted in heroic, mature realism, wearing the laurel wreath tied at the nape of the neck with two ribbons trailing downward over the neck and upper back. The truncation of the bust is carefully detailed, featuring slight drapery arranged over the left shoulder, which is viewed from the side and rear. This specific bust treatment reflects the stylistic evolution of the Rome mint during the middle of Trajan's reign, moving away from the severe, angular portraiture reminiscent of Domitian and Nerva toward a more individualized, serene image characterized by straight, neatly combed hair, a broad forehead, and a prominent jawline. The portrait is enclosed by the circular legend beginning on the lower left and running clockwise around the rim, bordered by a neat circle of beads.

Reverse Iconography and Composition

The reverse design features the personification Felicitas standing draped in a long stola and mantle, facing left. In her right hand, which is extended slightly forward, she holds an upright caduceus. The caduceus, an ancient emblem consisting of a staff intertwined with two serpents, served in Roman visual tradition as a primary symbol of peace, successful commerce, and civil harmony. Her left arm rests comfortably upon a low architectural column, conveying a sense of grounded security and permanence. This column motif was an established iconographic convention at Rome used to indicate that the felicitas enjoyed by the empire was stable, supported, and unshakeable under Trajan's governance. The drapery of her garments cascades along her legs with fine folds, terminating just above the ground line. The circular reverse legend encloses the deity, framing her within the formal titles of the reigning emperor and the Senate.

Epigraphy and Legends

The inscriptions on RIC II Trajan 120 reflect the formal titulature of the emperor and the cooperative relationship between the princeps and the Roman Senate. The obverse legend reads IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P, which expands to Imperatori Traiano Augusto Germanico Dacico, Pontifici Maximo, Tribunicia Potestate. This formulation honours Trajan as victorious commander, emperor, conqueror of the Germans and Dacians, supreme pontiff of state religion, and possessor of tribunician sanctity. Notably, the legend presents Trajan's name in the dative case (Traiano), signaling a dedicatory tone by which the coinage acts as an offering or tribute to the ruler. The reverse legend continues this dedicatory structure: COS V P P S P Q R OPTIMO PRINC, expanding to Consuli Quinto, Patri Patriae, Senatus Populusque Romanus Optimo Principi. It records his fifth consulship, assumed in 103 AD, his status as Father of the Country, and the official bestowal of the title Optimo Principi (To the Best Prince) by the Senate and the Roman People.

Typology and Chronological Sequence

In the pioneering cataloguing system of Mattingly and Sydenham in The Roman Imperial Coinage, RIC II Trajan 120 is classified within the fifth-consulship group spanning 103 to 111 AD. Because Trajan retained the title COS V for eight years without entering a sixth consulship until 112 AD, dating coins within this bracket depends on internal stylistic, epigraphic, and hoard evidence. Later monumental research by Paul Strack and Bernhard Woytek refined this broad timeline. In Woytek's Moneta Imperii Romani framework, this specific type corresponds to issue series struck in the mid-100s AD, particularly following the formal conclusion of the Second Dacian War and the celebrated adoption of the title Dacicus on coins from late 102 AD onward. Numismatists note minor die variants within the type, such as subtle shifts in the folds of the drapery across the shoulder and slight differences in the proportions of the column, which represent individual engraver styles rather than distinct administrative issues.

Circulation and Archaeological Evidence

Denarii bearing the reverse type of Felicitas resting on a column circulated throughout the breadth of the Roman Empire. Archaeological excavations and stray finds confirm that RIC II Trajan 120 travelled through commercial channels into Britannia, the Rhine and Danube frontiers, the Iberian peninsula, and the eastern provinces. Due to its standard weight and purity, the issue remained in circulation long after Trajan's death in 117 AD. It routinely appears alongside issues of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius in mid- to late-second-century hoards. Significant quantities have also been recorded in third-century savings hoards across Gaul and the Balkans, indicating that Trajanic denarii continued to serve as trusted silver currency until the massive debasements under Septimius Severus and Caracalla gradually removed high-purity early imperial denarii from circulation.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. III: Nerva to Hadrian. pp. 67-68
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II Trajan 120. ric.2.tr.120
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 252, no. 120
4. Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil I: Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Traian. no. 90
5. Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117), Moneta Imperii Romani 35. MIR 35, no. 278b