Hadrian augustus, 117 – 138

Sestertius 119-120, Æ 32 mm, 23.75 g. IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANVS AVG P M TR P COS III Laureate bust r., with drapery on l. shoulder. Rev. RELIQVA VETERA HS NOVIES MILL ABOLITA Lictor standing l., holding fasces in l. hand and setting light to a heap of papers with r. in front of three citizens. C 1212. BMC 1208. RIC 264.
Very rare and an issue of great historical importance. Lovely green patina and very fine

Ex Triton sale XXI, 2018, 754. From the Peter Bowe collection.
Upon the death of Trajan in 117, power formally transferred to his alleged heir Hadrian, who was then governing Syria. In his new capacity Hadrian wintered in Asia Minor, and early in 118 marched westward to settle affairs along the Danube. He eventually arrived in Rome in July – nearly a year after he had been hailed emperor. Upon entering the Eternal City he bolstered his popularity by making a donative to the people, making grants to the poor children of Italy and by holding a triumph in honour of Trajan. He also cancelled debts and burned promissory notes in a general amnesty for tax arrears. This last act is celebrated on this rare and historical sestertius. The reverse shows Hadrian, or a lictor applying a torch to a heap of papers symbolic of the debts being cancelled. This rather elaborate version of this coin type shows three citizens with their arms outstretched in joy and gratitude. These documents (syngrafi) were burned in Trajan’s Forum, where Hadrian erected a monument that bore the inscription „the first of all pincipes and the only one who, by remitting nine hundred million sesterces owed to the fiscus, provided security not merely for his present citizens but also for their descendants by this generosity“.
The reverse inscription on this sestertius, RELIQVA VETERA HS NOVIES MILL ABOLITA, is of exceptional interest. It quite literally translates to „nine times a hundred thousand sestertii of outstanding debts cancelled“. HS is a standard abbreviation for sestertii in Roman inscriptions, and, depending upon how it is referenced, it can refer to a single sestertius, a unit of one thousand sestertii, or a unit of one hundred thousand sestertii. In this case novies is an adverb meaning ‘nine times’, and thus it applies to the sestertius as a unit of one thousand sestertii. Some have logically suggested that in the context of this inscription the HS would have been an adjective with the thousand, or mille, being understood in terms of empire-wide taxes. If so, it would increase the named figure to ‘nine times a hundred thousand units of one thousand sestertii’, thus equating it to the figure of 900 million sestertii that is named on the monument inscription.
In any case, this is a remarkable instance of the denomination of the sestertius being named on a Roman coin – especially since the coin is of that very denomination. The 19th Century historian S. W. Smith artfully describes this important coin type as „...one of the most remarkable monuments of imperial munificence that can be found within the recording province of numismatic art.“