Aureus - Hadrian P M TR P COS DES III SALVS AVG, Salus

Struck in the opening months of Hadrian's reign, this aureus belongs to a group issued before he even reached Rome following Trajan's death in August 117. The COS DES III designation — consul designate for the third time — places it firmly in that transitional window before his actual third consulship began in 119. The SALVS AVG type carried pointed political weight at this moment: Hadrian's accession was contested enough that the Praetorian Guard had executed four senior senators without trial, an act Hadrian publicly disavowed but which haunted the early years of his principate.