Æ29 - Domitian L ΙΑ

Domitian's eleventh tribunician year (L ΙΑ) places this piece squarely in the middle of his reign's darkest phase — the so-called "reign of terror" that Suetonius and Pliny documented in some detail, during which senatorial executions and property confiscations became routine instruments of governance. The Alexandrian mint, however, operated at considerable remove from Roman political violence and continued producing bronze coinage for Egypt's closed currency system with little interruption.

Egypt's monetary isolation meant this bronze circulated only within the province — Roman denarii were officially excluded from local use, a policy enforced since Augustus.