The Significance of Roman Imperial Coin Types

Abstract

Abstract Did Roman Imperial coin types have significant news or propaganda content, or were they generic? This article (focussing on the coinage of Trajan) argues that this depends on what part of the coinage is considered. The gold and bronze coins had substantial news content, but the silver coinage generally did not. This situation arose because two factors, sometimes conflicting, governed the choice of coin types in Trajan′s mint: first, the desire to select topical images; second, the need to maintain uninterrupted the mass-production of coins. As a result, the lower-volume portions of the coinage were adorned with more up-to-date types, and these were changed often; the higher-volume coinage on the other hand – especially the silver denarii – tended to employ generic and outdated types.