Denarius - Tiberius TR POT XVII IMP VII

Struck in the first full years of Tiberius's reign, this issue dates to a period of acute military anxiety in Rome. The TR POT XVII dating places production in 15–16 AD, precisely when Germanicus was campaigning across the Rhine in punishing raids following the catastrophic destruction of Varus's three legions in the Teutoburg Forest six years earlier. The Senate and new emperor needed the coinage to project stability at home while the northern frontier remained genuinely unsettled.

RIC I #4 is among the earliest of the "Tribute Penny" type — the series traditionally, if not conclusively, associated with the biblical passage in Matthew 22. Most production of this period was concentrated at Lugdunum.