Denarius - Hadrian COS III, Annona

The COS III dating places this issue within Hadrian's extensive reorganization of provincial grain supply infrastructure — a project he pursued with unusual personal investment, having toured Egypt's agricultural regions during his 130 AD journey east. The Annona, as the Roman grain dole administration, was politically sensitive enough that emperors routinely used coinage to signal its stability, particularly after Trajan's Dacian wars had strained supply logistics across the empire.

RIC II.3 #845 falls within the revised Spink attribution system updated in the 2023 third edition reissue, which reclassified numerous Hadrianic types previously lumped under broader RIC II entries.