The Aureus under Trajan: the Metrological Evidence

This article provides an in-depth examination of the metrological behaviour of Trajan’s aureus issues (AD 98–117) and is based on the data of about 1800 coins, assembled in the course of a wider program of research on the coinage of Trajan’s reign.
Trajan reduced the aureus weight from the standard of 1/43 pound, which had been used for the later issues of Domitian and under Nerva, to the Neronian standard of 1/45 pound soon after his accession, in AD 98/99, and this lower standard was adhered to throughout his reign. The reduction is to be interpreted in the context of Trajan’s lowering of the silver content of the denarius alloy to c. 80 percent in AD 100.