Aureus - Sabina Ceres

Sabina, wife of Hadrian, received the title Augusta around 128 AD — the precise moment this issue begins. Her elevation was politically calculated; Hadrian had long kept a cold distance from his wife, and the public honors granted through coinage served dynastic messaging rather than any personal warmth. The aurei of this period were struck at Rome under careful imperial supervision, their gold content tightly controlled as part of Hadrian's broader fiscal discipline across the provinces.

RIC II.3 2478 is among the issues attributable to the early Augusta coinage, before the later reverse types associated with her deification following her death around 136–137 AD.