Year 4 of Antoninus Pius corresponds to 140–141 AD, the same period in which the emperor renewed the grain dole arrangements with Alexandria — a city whose mint operated under a completely separate reckoning system from Rome, dating its issues by regnal year rather than consulship. The ΤΕΤΑΡΤ designation marks this as a fourth-year piece within that Alexandrian count, a detail that allows precise attribution in a series where provincial bronzes are frequently mislabeled by a year in either direction.
The Alexandrian mint under Antoninus produced unusually large module bronzes in quantity, partly to compensate for chronic shortages of smaller denominations in the Egyptian economy.
Year 4 of Antoninus Pius corresponds to 140–141 AD, the same period in which the emperor renewed the grain dole arrangements with Alexandria — a city whose mint operated under a completely separate reckoning system from Rome, dating its issues by regnal year rather than consulship. The ΤΕΤΑΡΤ designation marks this as a fourth-year piece within that Alexandrian count, a detail that allows precise attribution in a series where provincial bronzes are frequently mislabeled by a year in either direction.
The Alexandrian mint under Antoninus produced unusually large module bronzes in quantity, partly to compensate for chronic shortages of smaller denominations in the Egyptian economy.