Denarius - Trajan S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, Victory

Issued in the years immediately preceding Trajan's Dacian and Parthian campaigns, this denarius belongs to a phase when the Roman treasury was still flush with the wealth extracted from Dacia after 106 AD — an influx of gold and silver so substantial that ancient sources credit it with funding a decade of public works and military preparation. The title OPTIMO PRINCIPI, formally conferred by the Senate in 114, placed Trajan above all prior emperors in official honorific rank, a distinction no predecessor had held.

RIC II 287 is well documented within the series but individual die pairings show meaningful variation in style attributable to multiple engravers working concurrently at Rome.