Year 16 of Trajan's reign saw Alexandria's mint operating at high capacity, producing large bronze denominations to serve the Egyptian economy's peculiar closed currency system — foreign coins were exchangeable only at Alexandria's official exchange, a policy maintained since the Ptolemies that kept Roman imperial authority over Egypt's monetary supply almost entirely separate from the rest of the empire. The ΙϚ date stamp is the mint's own regnal dating, independent of the Roman consular calendar.
Year 16 of Trajan's reign saw Alexandria's mint operating at high capacity, producing large bronze denominations to serve the Egyptian economy's peculiar closed currency system — foreign coins were exchangeable only at Alexandria's official exchange, a policy maintained since the Ptolemies that kept Roman imperial authority over Egypt's monetary supply almost entirely separate from the rest of the empire. The ΙϚ date stamp is the mint's own regnal dating, independent of the Roman consular calendar.