AR19 - Diocletian L Ι

Year 10 of Diocletian's reign — marked by the "L Ι" regnal date — falls immediately before his sweeping coinage reform of 296 AD, which abolished the Alexandrian tetradrachm series entirely after roughly 530 years of continuous production. This piece is among the last issues of that long tradition. The reform replaced the old billon tetradrachms with a standardized imperial coinage, ending Egypt's status as a closed monetary system where coins from the rest of the empire could not legally circulate.