Æ12 - Hadrian L ΕΝ

Year 9 of Hadrian's reign, rendered on Alexandrian bronzes as L Θ — here abbreviated ΕΝ in the less common epigraphic shorthand. Hadrian visited Egypt in 130 AD, but his administration's reach into the province's coinage was felt years earlier through systematic reform of the nome series and small-denomination civic issues like this one. At 1.04 grams, this piece circulated at the absolute floor of the Egyptian monetary system, handling transactions the silver tetradrachm would never touch.