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Æ34 - Trajan L ΙϚ

Issuer Alexandria (Egypt)
Year 112-113
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Reference(s) RPC III#4736
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Obverse script Greek
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Reverse description The goddess Isis Pharia strides advancing to the left, her billowing sail-like garment spread behind her in a distinctive and well-recognized iconographic type associated with Alexandrian maritime coinage. To the right stands the Pharos of Alexandria rendered as a tall lighthouse tower, its characteristic multi-tiered structure visible in the field. The date regnal legend appears in the upper field in Greek numerals. The composition captures the close religious and commercial association of Alexandria with the sea and the cult of Isis as protector of sailors. The style is characteristic of Alexandrian provincial bronze coinage under Trajan.
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Year 16 of Trajan's reign in Egypt — 112/113 AD — falls squarely within the period of his Parthian war preparations, when Alexandria's mint was operating at high volume to supply a province being used as a logistical staging ground. Egyptian provincial bronzes of this regnal year are not rare, but attrition from heavy circulation in the Nile Delta's humid environment means survivors in decent condition are far less common than raw survival numbers suggest. The dating by regnal year rather than consular year is the distinctly Alexandrian administrative habit inherited from Ptolemaic practice.

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