THE RESTORATION COINAGE OF TRAJAN DECIUS

As part of his effort to promote traditional beliefs, Trajan Decius issued a series of coins commemorating eleven of his deified predecessors. Numismatists refer to these coins as the Divi series, or the "Consecration" or "Restoration" coinage of Trajan Decius.

Some deified former emperors were not included and numismatists are baffled by who made the list and who did not. There were no coins for Julius Caesar, Claudius, Lucius Verus, Pertinax or Caracalla, who were all deified.

The coins were antoniniani, or "double denarii" of debased silver. Carelessly struck, often from worn dies on ragged blanks, these pieces generally bear portraits of excellent quality, suggesting that the engravers were familiar with coins that were as much as two centuries old at the time. Each emperor depicted wears the spiked "radiate crown" that was the symbol for the double denarius denomination, although it is very unlikely that any of these men would have ever actually worn such headgear.

There were two different reverses: one type shows a square altar topped by a flame, the other shows an eagle, companion of the god Jupiter, that was believed to carry the souls of the deified to Olympus to dwell among the gods.

Minor differences in the obverse inscriptions make the complete set total about thirty different types. The usual obverse inscription is in the "dative case" – the Latin grammatical form that hails the subject — "to the Divine So-and-so." The reverse inscription is CONSECRATIO, the Latin term for making something or someone sacred.

Image from Leu Numismatik AG – Trajan Decius, 249-251. Antoninianus (21 mm, 3.32 g,) RIC 77.

The portrait of Augustus on this type is unusually mature. Most of the coin portraits from the long reign of Augustus Caesar (27 BCE to 14 CE) show him as a youthful twenty-something, although he lived to the advanced age of 75.

Leu Numismatik AG Web Auction 34…5 July 2025 -Lot: 3034

A tough military man with a wry sense of humor, Vespasian ruled from 69 to 79 CE after crushing the revolt of the Jews, and defeating a series of rivals in the "Year of Four Emperors". Vespasian's ironic last words to his attendants before he died were "Woe is me. I think I'm turning into a god" (Vae, puto deus fio).

To read the complete article, see:
The Restoration Coinage Of Trajan Decius (https://coinweek.com/not-forgotten-the-restoration-coinage-of-trajan-decius/)

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