Denarius - Domitian IMP XXI COS XIIII CENS P P P, Minerva

Domitian's numbered imperatorial acclamations and consulships, stamped onto every denarius of his reign, function today as a precise dating mechanism — IMP XXI and COS XIIII together bracket this piece firmly to 88–89 AD, during the period when Domitian was consolidating autocratic control and had begun demanding to be addressed as dominus et deus. The Senate's damnatio memoriae after his assassination in 96 AD ordered his name struck from public monuments, but the coins were left in circulation.