Sestertius - Hadrian P M TR P COS III S C, Minerva

Hadrian's early sestertii in this series belong to a period of intense administrative consolidation — he had already abandoned Trajan's Parthian conquests by 117 and was actively reorienting Roman policy away from expansion. The COS III dating places this issue between 119 and 123, overlapping with Hadrian's first major tour of the provinces, during which he personally inspected frontier defenses and reformed military discipline in ways his predecessors had not.

RIC II.3 667 is part of the extensive 2007 revision of the Hadrianic orichalcum series, which substantially reorganized earlier RIC II attributions. Collectors working from older references should cross-check OCRE carefully, as numbering discrepancies between the original Mattingly-Sydenham volume and the revised second edition remain a persistent source of mislabeling in trade.