The helpful power of the community

Obverse

The obverse of the coin shows a portrait of Emperor Trajan. Text around the edge reads in full “IMP CAES NERVAE TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V P P”. Although only the first part is visible on my coin, which has also been holed.

That inscription translates as: “Imperator, Caesar, Nervae Traiano Augustus, Germanicus, Dacicus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate, Consul Quintum, Pater Patriae. Supreme commander (Imperator), Caesar, of Nerva Trajan, emperor (Augustus), conqueror of the Germans, conqueror of the Dacians, high priest, holder of tribunician power, consul for the fifth time, father of the nation.” Definitely more of a mouthful than King Charles has on his coins today.

The one striking feature of this coin is the size. It is a sestertius, a quarter of a denarius. The coin weighs 22.65 grams, like an Eisenhower Dollar from the USA. Where the Eisenhower dollar is 38mm diameter and 2.58mm thick, this Sestertius is only 33.15mm diameter, but 3.39mm thick, similar to the 1995 peace UK 2 Pound coin.

Emperor Trajan was born in Italica, now Seville in modern-day Spain, the first emperor born outside of Italy. He was emperor of the Roman Empire from 98 – 117 A.D., the second of “The Five Good Emperors“. He was loved by the people and the Senate.

Reverse

I never had any intention of writing a post about this coin. The portrait of Trajan is not quite like it was when new, but not too bad. But the reverse…. has basically nothing left. What I sometimes call a “Smoothie”.

It’s holed in the top and has that damage all over it making it impossible to tell what the design may have originally been. Searching for “Trajan Sestertius” on Numista yields 373 results.

But it’s a big coin with a nice large portrait, so I thought I’d ask the Ancient Coins group on Facebook, mostly hoping to see if maybe the style of portrait or position of “IMP CAES NERVAE TRAIANO” (all I could read on the obverse) could perhaps narrow it down to say the earlier or later part of his reign.

They well surpassed that, picking that the marks on the reverse, are in fact the fields, leaving what is left of the design. Which points to this coin on ACSearch.

In fact, there are several coins with similar horses, so it may be one of the others, but all are similar.

The original reverse has: S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI around the edge, the emperor on horseback facing right, thrusting a spear at a fallen Dacian; SC in exergue.

One of Trajan’s great early achievements was conquering Dacia (now part of Romania) in 101 A.D. So, it’s no surprise to find that depicted on a coin. I am still amazed that anyone was able to find that in my coin. Here I am holding the coin up the right way, against the original ACSearch image:

So, the key takeaway is just how incredibly important the community is, both in sharing your interest in the hobby, and in helping each other out with a new point of view on a coin you might have given up on! What coin are you the most amazed at having identified? Share a pic on social media and let us know!