Sestertius - Nerva LIBERTAS PVBLICA S C, Libertas

Nerva issued this piece within weeks of Domitian's assassination in September 96 AD, and the LIBERTAS PVBLICA legend was an explicit political statement — not an abstract virtue. Domitian's reign had ended with executions of senators and an atmosphere of enforced informants; Nerva's early coinage was designed to signal a clean break to the senatorial class whose support he desperately needed. He was in his mid-sixties, had no military backing, and was essentially a compromise candidate installed by the conspirators themselves.

RIC II 76 places this among the earliest issues of the reign, struck at Rome before Nerva's position had fully stabilized.