Watch List notes:

Trajan. 98-117 AD. Sestertius, 26.27g. (6h). Rome, 115 AD. Obv: IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V[I] P P Bust laureate, draped right, seen from side. Rx: IMPERATOR VII[II] / S C in exergue, The army saluting Trajan "imperator" for the ninth time; Trajan sits right on platform, extending right hand and attended by two standing officers, while a lictor shouldering fasces stands right before platform; the army is represented by (a) three soldiers standing left, all wearing helmets and holding shields, the first two raising their right arms to acclaim Trajan and the third holding a horse by the bridle and (b) the heads and standards of three standard-bearers, unhelmeted, visible in a second row above the heads of the soldiers and the horse in the front row. MIR 549v (71 specimens). BM 1019. Paris 844. RIC 657 (R ). Cohen 178 (25 Fr.). VF.

From the same dies as Gorny & Mosch 142, 10 October 2005, lot 2494-5. After major victories, the army saluted the emperor "imperator" ("commander"), entitling him to celebrate a triumph in Rome if the Senate decreed one. This sestertius of Trajan, a similar sestertius with IMPERATOR VIII, and a similar aureus with IMPERATOR VII, are the only Roman coins to depict such a salutation, commemorating in this case the first three victories of Trajan's Parthian war.