Æ18 - Trajan C I F ANN CXLIX

Sinope's colonial year 149 — rendered here as ANN CXXIX or CXLIX depending on the reading — anchors this issue to the civic calendar the city maintained from its refoundation as a Roman colony under Julius Caesar in 45 BC. Trajan held a particular connection to Sinope: its position on the Black Sea made it a critical supply and communication node during his Dacian campaigns, the first of which concluded in 102 AD.

Provincial bronzes from Sinope in this period are frequently underweight and poorly centred, a known characteristic of the local workshop rather than post-mint damage.