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Trajan (98-117), Sestertius, 103-11, Rome, laureate head right, rev. single-span bridge, tower at each end, boat below, 27.00g (RIC 569). Surfaces somewhat pitted and only fine, but an interesting type (£350-400)

It is thought that the bridge featured on this sestertius is the famous bridge across the Danube – which Dio Cassius described in glowing terms – constructed by Trajan’s principal architect, Apollodorus of Damascus, as part and parcel of the programme to pacify Dacia, a powerful and troublesome kingdom in what is now modern Romania. In view of the impact Trajan’s successful campaigns against the Dacians made on Roman opinion and the way this is reflected in the coinage of the reign, this interpretation of the type has considerable merit, though Mattingly and Sydenham considered that a ‘somewhat more probable suggestion is that the bridge shown...is the ancient Pons Sublicius’