Aureus - Trajan SALVS GENERIS HVMANI, Salus

Struck during the height of Trajan's Dacian wars, this aureus belongs to a period when the Roman mint was processing enormous quantities of Dacian gold captured after the fall of Sarmizegetusa in 106 AD. The influx was substantial enough that Trajan financed both a massive building program in Rome and a sustained elevated aureus output — the gold came directly from Dacian royal reserves and mine seizures in Transylvania.

RIC II 148B falls within a tightly dated emission group running across the Dacian war and consolidation phases. The SALVS GENERIS HVMANI type is one of several ideological issues from this period asserting Trajan's role as benefactor of the human race — a claim his column and forum were simultaneously making in stone.