Æ18 - Hadrian L Β

Year 2 of Hadrian's reign — rendered as LΒ on the reverse — places this issue in the immediate aftermath of Trajan's death in August 117, when Hadrian's accession was announced by the army in Syria before the Senate had formally acted. Alexandria's mint was among the first provincial operations to acknowledge the new emperor, turning out dated bronzes while the political situation in Rome remained unsettled. The Egyptian regnal dating system, tied to the Alexandrian calendar year, gives these early Hadrianic issues a precision that Roman Imperial coinage from the same months simply cannot match.