Trajan augustus, 98 – 117

Sestertius 103-104, Æ 35 mm, 26.59 g. [IMP CAES] NERVAE TRAIANO AVG GER DAC [P M TR P COS V P P] Laureate bust r., with drapery on l. shoulder. Rev. S P Q R [OPTIMO] PRINCIPI Emperor standing l. on platform, raising hand, prefect behind, four men standing to l. below, extending hands, female figure reclining r. on wheel below, three obelisks l.; in exergue, SC. C 523. BMC 828. RIC 553. CBN 216 (these dies). Woytek 182c.
Extremely rare, only very few specimens known of this interesting issue.
Brown tone and about very fine

Privately purchased from Harlan J. Berk. From the Peter Bowe collection.
This rare and impressive sestertius type clearly illustrates a distribution of largesse made by Trajan to the people of Rome—one of the many works undertaken by the emperor to earn the title of optimus princeps (“Best Prince”) accorded to him in the surrounding legend S P Q R OPTIMI PRINCIPI. The thoughtful engraver here depicts Trajan, with a figure standing behind him, probably to be identified as the prefectus urbi, on the right closest to the word PRINCIPI. They stand on a raised platform and the emperor extends his hand to throw a purse to an assembled crowd of four men below on the left closest to the abbreviation S P Q R (“the Senate and People of Rome”). The prefectus urbi holds a second purse in his hand ready to provide it to the emperor for the next throw. While the basic presentation of this type follows a popular Roman coin motif of the emperor distributing largesse to the people or to the army this sestertius is remarkable for the lengths to which the engraver has gone to locate the distribution within Rome. At the lower left a female figure reclines with her arm embracing three tapered pillars. The latter represent the metae located at each end of the Circus Maximus around which charioteers had to turn during races. The female figure is therefore considered a rare representation of the Genius of the Circus. Although this coin is dated to the period AD 104-111 based on Trajan’s imperial titulature on the obverse it may very well have been struck in AD 104 considering that Trajan had just completed the restoration of the Circus Maximus and expanded it by an additional 5000 seats in late 103. Under such circumstances the Circus Maximus would have been a particularly good location for a distribution of largesse as it would doubly underline Trajan’s character as optimus princeps