Nerva's Libertas Publica coinage belongs to an intensive propaganda campaign launched immediately after Domitian's assassination in September 96 AD, when the Senate moved swiftly to declare damnatio memoriae against the former emperor. Nerva needed to distinguish his reign sharply from Domitian's increasingly autocratic rule, and the mint output of 96–97 reflects that urgency — libertas, iustitia, and equitas appear with unusual frequency across the silver issues of these two years.
Nerva died in January 98, leaving this type with a production window of little more than a year.
Nerva's Libertas Publica coinage belongs to an intensive propaganda campaign launched immediately after Domitian's assassination in September 96 AD, when the Senate moved swiftly to declare damnatio memoriae against the former emperor. Nerva needed to distinguish his reign sharply from Domitian's increasingly autocratic rule, and the mint output of 96–97 reflects that urgency — libertas, iustitia, and equitas appear with unusual frequency across the silver issues of these two years.
Nerva died in January 98, leaving this type with a production window of little more than a year.