Sestertius - Trajan SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS S C SALVS AVG, Salus

Struck in the final years of Trajan's reign, this sestertius belongs to a period when the emperor was campaigning in Parthia and managing the largest territorial extent Rome would ever hold. The Salus type — invoking the goddess of public welfare and the emperor's health — took on pointed political weight after 113 AD, when Trajan's deteriorating physical condition became a matter of genuine imperial concern. He died in Cilicia in 117 before returning to Rome, and coins invoking his wellbeing from these last years carry an unintentional irony.

RIC II 670 is a relatively scarce late issue within the sestertius series, with production concentrated at Rome under pressing administrative conditions as Hadrian's succession was being quietly arranged.