Denarius M. Opimius

M. Opimius served as moneyer around 131 BC, the same decade Rome was absorbing the shock of Tiberius Gracchus's assassination and the violent suppression of his land reform movement. The Opimii were a prominent plebeian family; a generation later, Lucius Opimius — almost certainly a relative — would pass the senatus consultum ultimum to justify the killing of Gaius Gracchus in 121 BC, the first formal use of that emergency decree.

Crawford catalogues this issue as RRC 254/1 with no recorded die study anomalies of particular note. Surviving specimens cluster in a fairly tight weight range around the standard, suggesting consistent bullion control at the mint that year.