Hadrian AD 117-138 Copper As, Rome mint. BRITANNIA Rare

Hadrian (AD 117-138) Copper As. Rome, AD 119-120. IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANVS AVG, laureate bust to right, slight drapery on far shoulder / PONT MAX TR POT COS III, Britannia seated facing, foot on rock, drawing hood and holding sceptre, shield to right; S-C across fields, BRITANNIA in exergue. RIC II.3 241; BMCRE 1175, RCV3676, 24x26mm, 9.32g.
A rare type in most pleasing grade.

The first appearance on a coin of the personification of the Roman province of Britannia was struck early in the reign of Hadrian and presumably commemorates the suppression of an uprising of the northern British tribes that had begun shortly before or after Trajan’s death. The trouble on the northern frontier made obvious the need for a strong fortification to mark the northern boundary of Roman Britain, which would eventually manifest itself as the Vallum Aelium (Hadrian’s Wall).