Æ26 - Augustus ΚΑΙΣΑΡ

Alexandria's civic bronze coinage under Augustus occupied an unusual administrative niche: Egypt was not a senatorial province but the personal property of the emperor, governed by a prefect of equestrian rank rather than a senator — a deliberate Augustan policy to keep its enormous grain revenues out of the hands of the Roman aristocracy. The mint at Alexandria operated accordingly, producing a Greek-language imperial coinage entirely distinct from the Roman system, with denominations calibrated to local Egyptian monetary tradition rather than the Roman denominational structure.

The Greek spelling ΚΑΙΣΑΡ rather than the Latin CAESAR marks this as issued for a population whose administrative language remained Greek three centuries after Alexander's conquest.