Trajan Silver Denarius, RIC II Trajan 11

Monetary Context

Upon the death of Emperor Nerva in January AD 98, Trajan inherited an empire requiring political consolidation and administrative reassurance. Nerva's brief reign had been marked by fiscal strain, political concessions to the Praetorian Guard, and initial distributions of charity and civic assistance. To maintain public confidence, the newly proclaimed emperor quickly established his authority across all administrative facets, including the imperial coinage. Denarii played a primary role as the standard silver unit of account and everyday transaction throughout the Mediterranean, serving as the chief medium for paying legionary wages, civilian state salaries, and civic subventions. The issuance of RIC II Trajan 11 occurred within this period of delicate constitutional transition. The silver denarius was struck under the fineness and weight norms established toward the end of the Flavian period and maintained under Nerva. Roman imperial denarii of this phase typically possessed a target weight around 3.4 grams, with silver contents averaging roughly 80 to 85 percent purity. Trajan had not yet initiated his sweeping Dacian campaigns or the monetary restructuring of AD 107, which later melted down older pre-Neronian and worn imperial silver. Thus, issues like RIC II Trajan 11 circulated alongside late Flavian and Nervan issues to establish economic stability and assert the legitimacy of Trajan's succession.

Production and Mints

The production of RIC II Trajan 11 was centralized at the primary imperial mint in the city of Rome. During the transition between AD 98 and AD 99, Trajan spent substantial time inspecting frontiers in Germania and Pannonia before making his formal ceremonial entry into Rome in the autumn of AD 99. Despite the princeps' personal absence from the capital, the imperial mint operated steadily under the administrative direction of imperial freedmen and equestrian procurators, executing coin types approved by the Senate and the imperial chancery. Technically, the Rome mint executed this issue by casting standard flans and striking them between manually carved intaglio dies. Mint workers aligned dies with careful attention to portraiture and titular conventions, producing coin blanks with consistent metallographic traits. Die axes for this issue usually demonstrate an upright or slightly offset alignment, typical of late first-century Roman imperial issues. Output of the denarius denomination at Rome remained prolific, as the state required thousands of fresh silver pieces for daily administrative expenses and military pay abroad.

Obverse Design and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC II Trajan 11 presents a right-facing, laureate head of Trajan. The imperial portrait illustrates the transition from the expressive, slightly veristic style characterizing the coins of Nerva to a sober, idealized military appearance. The laureate crown is tied behind the nape of the neck with two ribbon ends falling downward. Trajan is shown clean-shaven, with straight, combed-forward hair characteristic of his standard iconography. Because Trajan was absent from Rome during the early months of his reign, mint engravers initially worked from official sculptural busts or painted models dispatched to the capital. The resulting facial features convey determined authority, marked by a firm jawline, a prominent straight nose, and a broad forehead. This iconography broke away from the aged, fragile depiction of Nerva while deliberately preserving a sense of dignified civic restraint, avoiding the overly autocratic imagery of Domitian.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse of the coin illustrates Abundantia seated facing left upon an elaborate, distinctive seat constructed from two crossed cornucopiae. In her right hand, she holds an upright sceptre, symbol of sovereign authority and divine dispensation. Abundantia serves as the divine personification of material prosperity, bountiful harvest, and state-guaranteed grain provision. Her seated posture reflects stability, security, and peaceful repose under the aegis of the princeps. The use of crossed cornucopiae to form the seat is an artistic and symbolic feature inherited from earlier imperial issues, particularly those struck under Nerva and the Flavians. Rather than resting upon a mundane stool or standard curule chair, the goddess derives her very support from the symbols of the horn of plenty, magnifying the message of overflowing state wealth. This motif reassured the urban populace of Rome that grain distributions (the frumentatio) and commercial trade would continue without interruption under the new emperor.

Legends and Epigraphy

The inscriptions on RIC II Trajan 11 follow strict official epigraphic formulations. The obverse legend reads IMP CAES NERVA TRAIAN AVG GERM, providing the essential imperial titles: Imperator (commander), Caesar, Nerva (asserting filial adoption and continuity), Traianus (his personal cognomen), Augustus (revered sovereign), and Germanicus (the victory title granted following operations on the Rhine frontier late in Nerva's reign). This legend wraps continuously clockwise around the portrait. The reverse legend reads PONT MAX TR POT COS II, which enumerates the chief religious and constitutional offices held by Trajan at the start of his reign. Pontifex Maximus affirms his position as chief priest of the Roman state religion; Tribunicia Potestate indicates his possession of the sacrosanct tribunician power; and Consul II (consul for the second time) anchors the issue securely to AD 98 and AD 99. Trajan served his second consulship beginning January 1, AD 98, and did not assume his third consulship until January 1, AD 100, providing an unambiguous terminus ante quem for the reverse legend.

Typology and Chronology

RIC II Trajan 11 belongs to Trajan's first major denarius group (Group 1 in Bernhard Woytek's Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus), struck between his accession in late January AD 98 and his assumption of the third consulship on January 1, AD 100. Within the typology established by Mattingly and Sydenham in The Roman Imperial Coinage, type 11 is defined by the specific combination of the seated Abundantia reverse on crossed cornucopiae with the COS II legend. While related denarii of the same period display standing personifications of Pax, Vesta, or Justitia, the seated Abundantia type remains a cohesive and well-documented issue. Variants exist primarily in minor engraver liberties, such as the exact drapery folds of the goddess, the precise angle of the sceptre, or slight differences in portrait proportions. However, the constitutional formula PONT MAX TR POT COS II remains uniform across the genuine specimens of this catalogue entry.

Circulation and Archaeological Context

Denarii of Trajan's early COS II issues entered active circulation across both the western and eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. As standard silver currency, they circulated through military bases along the Rhine and Danube frontiers, civic markets in Italy, and commercial networks across Gaul and Britain. Because they were struck on the pre-reform standard, these early denarii remained in everyday use throughout Trajan's reign and into the mid-second century AD. Hoard evidence demonstrates that coins of RIC II Trajan 11 were regularly hoarded alongside late Flavian, Nervan, and later Trajanic issues. While Trajan later carried out a substantial recoinage in AD 107 to recall older, worn Republican and early imperial denarii, early Trajanic denarii themselves possessed standard contemporary silver purity and continued circulating until the Severan era, when third-century debasements prompted hoarding and melting of earlier high-grade silver.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. III: Nerva to Hadrian. Trajan, no. 8-11
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II Trajan 11. ric.2.tr.11
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 246, no. 11
4. Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117) (MIR 14). Moneta Imperii Romani 14