Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Trajan AV Aureus. Rome, AD 98-99. IMP CAES NERVA TRAIAN AVG GERM, laureate head to right / P M TR P COS II P P, Germania seated to left on oblong shields, holding branch in right hand and resting left arm on shields; helmet between shields below. RIC II 5; C. 207; BMCRE 34; BN 48; Woytek 55a; Calicó 1044 (same dies). 7.48g, 20mm, 6h.
Extremely Fine; a couple of minor marks in obv. fields, highly lustrous. Very Rare; only 3 other examples offered at auction in the past 20 years.
Acquired from Numismatica Ars Classica AG;
Privately purchased from Ibergold in 1984.
After the peaceful but politically strained rule of the aged Nerva, the seamless transition of power into the hands of a popular general who was already named Caesar and a serving consul when the emperor passed must have seemed like nothing less than a total (and near miraculous) rejuvenation of the principate. Indeed, the early years of the reign of Trajan were hailed as the beginning of a new golden age, a time of peace and prosperity which would last for nearly a century until the megalomania of Commodus and his ruinous fiscal policies wrought an inevitable return to civil war and economic decline.
The aurei of Trajan, like those of his predecessor Nerva, are most difficult to find in such exemplary condition. This is on account of the predominantly peaceful state of affairs within the Roman territories at this time, and the economic stability this conferred. There was consequently very little hoarding of newly-minted coins as is associated with times of uncertainty or war.
Extremely Fine; a couple of minor marks in obv. fields, highly lustrous. Very Rare; only 3 other examples offered at auction in the past 20 years.
Acquired from Numismatica Ars Classica AG;
Privately purchased from Ibergold in 1984.
After the peaceful but politically strained rule of the aged Nerva, the seamless transition of power into the hands of a popular general who was already named Caesar and a serving consul when the emperor passed must have seemed like nothing less than a total (and near miraculous) rejuvenation of the principate. Indeed, the early years of the reign of Trajan were hailed as the beginning of a new golden age, a time of peace and prosperity which would last for nearly a century until the megalomania of Commodus and his ruinous fiscal policies wrought an inevitable return to civil war and economic decline.
The aurei of Trajan, like those of his predecessor Nerva, are most difficult to find in such exemplary condition. This is on account of the predominantly peaceful state of affairs within the Roman territories at this time, and the economic stability this conferred. There was consequently very little hoarding of newly-minted coins as is associated with times of uncertainty or war.