Denarius - Trajan P M TR P COS VI P P S P Q R, Mars

Struck in the final years of Trajan's reign, this issue dates to a period when Rome was absorbing the newly conquered province of Dacia and pushing deep into Parthian territory — campaigns that would prove to be the farthest eastern extent of Roman imperial expansion. The sixth consulship designation places production firmly within those last ambitious years before Trajan's death at Selinus in 117 AD.

RIC II 338 is a well-documented type with no exceptional rarity, but coins from this narrow window carry the distinction of being among the last issues authorized by the man who, by Gibbon's assessment, presided over Rome at its greatest territorial peak.