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Sestertius - Trajan SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS S C

Issuer Roman Imperial Mint
Year 103-111
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Weight 23.87 g
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Obverse script Latin
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Reverse description Trajan's Column depicted in the field, shown as a tall, spiral-relief-decorated shaft rising from a stepped rectangular base, with two eagles perched at the base flanking the column on either side and a statue of the emperor standing at the summit. The column, commemorating Trajan's Dacian victories and erected in the Forum of Trajan in Rome, is rendered with careful attention to its architectural elements including the base, shaft, and crowning figure. The senatorial mark of authority S C (Senatus Consulto) appears in the field to either side of the column's lower section. The circumferential legend encircles the design, invoking the authority of the Senate and Roman people.
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Trajan's sestertii from this period were struck in the shadow of the Dacian Wars — the first campaign concluded in 102 AD, the second launched in 105. The SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS reverse attribution was a deliberate constitutional gesture, formally crediting the senate and people of Rome rather than the emperor alone, a convention Trajan cultivated carefully to distance himself from the memory of Domitian's autocratic posturing.

RIC II 475 is among the more frequently encountered Trajanic sestertius types, yet orichalcum pieces from this reign suffer disproportionately from corrosion and encrustation due to the alloy's zinc content.

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