Æ24 - Marcus Aurelius L Ϛ

Regnal year 6 of Marcus Aurelius places this coin squarely within one of the most catastrophic episodes of the ancient world: the Antonine Plague, carried back from the eastern campaigns by Lucius Verus's returning legions and spreading through Egypt with particular devastation. Alexandrian bronze issues of this period were produced under the Roman prefectural system, which tightly controlled local coinage to prevent it circulating outside Egypt — a monetary quarantine that gives the series its provincial insularity.