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Æ23 - Trajan L ΙΗ
| Issuer | Alexandria (Egypt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 114-115 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | RPC III#4845 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The Agathodaemon serpent depicted erect and coiled, facing right, crowned with the double Egyptian skhent crown, filling the central field of the coin. The body of the serpent is shown in multiple sinuous coils beneath the raised upper portion, a design emblematic of Alexandrian civic coinage and representing the protective spirit deity of Alexandria. The regnal date legend L ΙΗ (year 18) is placed in the field to either side of the serpent. The reverse type reflects the strong Egypto-Greek religious syncretism characteristic of Alexandrian provincial coinage under Roman rule. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Year 18 of Trajan's reign — rendered as L ΙΗ in Greek — places this issue squarely in the period of his Parthian campaign, when Roman imperial ambitions reached their greatest eastern extent. Alexandria's civic mint continued producing dated bronze for local Egyptian circulation throughout, largely indifferent to the wars being fought a thousand miles away. The regnal year dating system, inherited from Ptolemaic practice, is what makes precise attribution possible here where Roman provincial bronzes elsewhere resist it.