It's All YOUR Fault - New Trajan Denarius

mnemtsas2 · July 9, 2014 8:34PM

The flood of ancient coins on here in the last few months has of course been a terrible influence on me. So I decided to cave into peer pressure and buy one to see how I liked it. I've just been on a week long visit to a large city and looked at perhaps 75 ancients in coin shops there before settling on this one. I liked the surfaces and the flan cracking and the fact that the reverse is a little off center made it a bit more affordable.

Trajan Silver Denarius, Rome mint circa 98-114AD.

3.48g

RIC 147

Obverse: IMP TRAINO AVG GER DAC P M TR P, laureate head right.
Reverse: COS V P P SPQR OPTIMO PRINC

Armour, shields, spears on a stump/frame.

JCMhouston · July 9, 2014 10:18PM

Very nice, doesn't it feel good to have a new series to spend money on?

Zohar · July 9, 2014 10:56PM

bronzemat · July 10, 2014 12:32AM

This type is often faked but yours is fine. If you stick with ancients you will learn to tolerate faults that some ancients have. Not every one has to be perfect like modern collectors like to achieve.

NiceCurrency · July 10, 2014 1:44AM

nice looking Trajan to start a collection with

SmEagle1795 · July 10, 2014 6:25AM

No apologies here

I love the reverse - Trajan has some incredible types and yours certainly ranks among them. An entire collection could be built around military implements, if you're interested in those types.

nicholasz219 · July 11, 2014 2:58PM

Great coin and purchase!

I really would like to get my hands on more military themes pieces but they usually are a tad too expensive for me. I attended a lecture at last years CICF about "Ad Locutio" and the emperor haranguing his soldiers and representations of military items and scenes on coins depicting those speeches. Fascinating stuff. I've never seen this piece (probably out of price range so I don't bother torturing myself). Nice way to encounter it.