Æ34 - Hadrian L Δ

Year 4 of Hadrian's reign — the "L Δ" regnal date — places this coin in the period immediately following his accession tour of the eastern provinces, during which he made a point of visiting Alexandria and personally engaging with its intellectual community. The Alexandrian mint operated on an entirely separate dating system from the Roman imperial calendar, using Egyptian regnal years and a distinct series of types that were never replicated elsewhere in the empire. This localized autonomy in coinage persisted well into the third century.