Trajan, silver denarius, Rome, AD 112-113

Trajan, silver denarius, Rome, AD 112-113 3.14 g, c. 19 mm, die axis 6 h. Obverse legend IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Reverse legend SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI, in exergue ALIM ITAL, Annona standing right, head left, holding two grain-ears downward in the right hand and a cornucopia whose tip points away in the left, at her feet to left a small child. RIC 243, BMCRE 377, Woytek 395b, RSC 327. Light grey toning, legends complete, reverse devices clear, very fine.

The exergual legend ALIM ITAL advertises Trajan’s Alimenta Italiae programme, an imperial trust fund that financed low-interest loans to Italian landowners and used the interest to support orphaned and impoverished children. By pairing Annona, the personification of grain supply, with a child beneficiary, the reverse stresses the emperor’s role as provider for both food and social welfare. Issued late in Trajan’s reign, after his sixth consulship in AD 112, the coin belongs to a larger series that honoured specific civic initiatives while reaffirming the Senate’s formal acclamation, “Senatus Populusque Romanus to the best of princes.”