Ancient Roman Coin Abbreviations
Roman coins often compress names, offices and political messages into a few lines or a ring of letters. These inscriptions are called legends. Abbreviations let a small object carry a substantial list of titles, while images and reverse phrases advertise victory, prosperity, divine protection or public benefit. Reading a legend requires identifying the words and understanding how they fit together. A single familiar abbreviation rarely identifies the complete issue.
On this page6 sections
Reading the two sides
The obverse, usually the side with the main portrait, commonly names the ruler and gives titles. The reverse often combines an image with a message, an office count or other information. This division is useful but not absolute: coinage changed greatly across the Republic and empire, and provincial issues could use Greek legends. The guide below mainly concerns Latin imperial legends.
First follow the letters around the design and separate likely names from titles. Roman inscriptions commonly use V where modern editions print U, so AVG expands to Augustus and TRANQVILLITAS is read as tranquillitas. Words may run together without spaces. Dots and breaks in a catalogue transcription can help show divisions, but the original coin may use different punctuation or none at all.
Common titles, names and phrases
| Legend | Expansion or meaning | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| AVG | Augustus | Imperial title. AVGG can indicate more than one Augustus; read the whole legend. |
| CAES / CAESAR | Caesar | A name that became an imperial title, often used for a junior ruler in later arrangements. |
| IMP | Imperator | A title associated with command. A following number can count imperial acclamations. |
| COS II | Consul for the second time | A consul was one of Rome’s senior magistrates; under the Empire the office also became honorific. II counts consulships, not years of the emperor’s reign. |
| P M | Pontifex maximus | Chief pontiff: a religious office included in imperial titles. |
| TR P / TR POT | Tribunicia potestas | Tribunician power. A number can help date an issue when the ruler’s chronology is established. |
| P P | Pater patriae | “Father of the fatherland,” an honorific title. |
| S C | Senatus consulto | “By decree of the Senate,” familiar on many imperial bronze issues. |
| L | Lucius, in a personal name | Context matters: a letter can be an initial, part of another abbreviation or a numeral. |
| PERT | Pertinax | A name adopted in Septimius Severus’s titulature; it does not by itself identify the coin as an issue of Pertinax. |
| FORT RED | Fortuna Redux | Fortuna associated with a safe return, commonly represented in an imperial message. |
| BEATA TRANQVILLITAS | Blessed tranquillity | A full reverse phrase rather than an abbreviation; its imagery expresses a claim about fortunate peace. |
| STR / .STR | Trier mintmark series | TR identifies Trier in these issues; accompanying letters and marks distinguish production arrangements and variants. |
These entries serve different purposes. AVG and IMP are abbreviated titles; COS II includes an office count; PERT is part of a name; BEATA TRANQVILLITAS is a phrase. Mintmarks belong to the production of the coin. Keeping those categories separate prevents a title, message and mint code from being mistaken for the same kind of evidence.
A complete imperial legend
A Domitian issue catalogued in Online Coins of the Roman Empire carries IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM COS XV CENS PER P P. Read in sequence, it names Imperator Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus, consul for the fifteenth time, perpetual censor and father of the fatherland. DOMIT identifies the personal name, while GERM expresses the title Germanicus. The remaining elements present offices and honours.
The order matters because an abbreviation acquires meaning from its neighbours. XV after COS counts consulships, while PER extends CENS into “perpetual censor.” The complete sequence supplies a much stronger identification than the portrait or AVG alone. A catalogue can then distinguish the issue by reverse type, metal, denomination and other details. Roman currency explains the monetary systems within which such coins circulated.
Office counts and dating
Numbers after titles can narrow the production period, but they are not ordinary calendar years. An emperor could retain the same consulship count for several years. Numbered tribunician power often provides a more precise sequence, though its interpretation depends on the ruler’s accession and renewal arrangements. A date should follow a checked chronology and catalogue identification, rather than a rule that every number equals one year of reign.
Roman numerals also have to be read within their phrase. II is two, XV fifteen and XX twenty, but letters elsewhere can be initials or workshop signs. Wear, an off-centre strike (a misaligned blow from the coin dies) or damage may hide part of a count. Recording a visible fragment accurately is better than silently completing it into a convenient date.
Mintmarks and reverse messages
A mintmark often appears in the exergue, the area below the main reverse design. A Constantine I coin in the London Museum combines CONSTANTINVS AVG with BEATA TRANQVILLITAS and STR below a globe on an altar. The museum attributes this issue to Trier. The place of manufacture is separate from the place where a coin was later lost or excavated; circulating money could travel widely.
The reverse message presents blessed tranquillity through image and words. It is a statement promoted by the issuing authority, rather than proof that its whole territory enjoyed peace. Fortuna Redux similarly associates a return with divine favour. Roman architectural propaganda considers related ways in which public imagery presented authority and achievement.
Checking an identification
Combine the visible legend with the portrait, reverse design, metal and size. Catalogues organise coins by ruler and issue, and tools such as Online Coins of the Roman Empire allow searches using surviving letters. A close match should account for both sides and the mintmark where one is present. Distinguishing an exact type from a merely similar design is especially important when several rulers share a title or use the same message.