Æ34 - Hadrian L Β

Hadrian's first regnal year in Alexandria — Λ Β, Year 2 by Egyptian reckoning — falls immediately after his accession following Trajan's death in August 117. The Alexandria mint moved quickly to produce coinage in his name, though the political situation was anything but settled: Hadrian had just suppressed the tail end of the great Jewish revolt that had devastated Cyprus, Cyrene, and Egypt itself under Trajan. The Egyptian economy was still absorbing that damage when these bronzes entered circulation.

The mint at Alexandria operated on a closed currency system, meaning provincials had to exchange Roman coinage for local issues at the border — a deliberate monetary quarantine that kept Alexandrian bronzes circulating hard within Egypt rather than bleeding out to wider trade networks.