Bingley wrote in a comment in this blog: "Something that the Birley book has brought home to me is the amount of communication between Hadrian and the people via coins. It was something I was vaguely aware of, that the government did use coins as a propaganda vehicle, but I hadn't realised there was quite so much of it going on. It seems almost everything Hadrian did meant a commemorative issue of coins."
Coins frequently provide missing pieces in Roman history. I have put up some links showing images of Hadrian coins.
Here are several denarii and dupondii courtesy Doug Smith, who has given me permission to show a number of his coins on my website. This includes the above coin, depicting the traveling emperor.
In his early travels through the empire, Hadrian was greatly concerned with the training and fitness of the army in the provinces. This generated a number of Exercitus coins, which can be seen here. The coins usually show Hadrian addressing soldiers.
The next two pages give a general overview of Hadrian coins: From the Museum of Antiquities at the University of Saskatchewan and from WildWinds.
Then there is the Alexandrian series from a commercial page. This page concerns itself also with Sabina, Antinous and Aelius.
Finally, in a dark chapter, seen from the other side, the Bar Kokhba War Coins from Jerusalem Through Coins, including the Bar Kochba Sela, a Bar Kochba Denarius, and a Bar Kochba Middle Bronze, all from 134-135 CE.
