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AR19 - Diocletian L Β
| Issuer | Alexandria (Egypt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 285-286 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | Nike (Victory) advancing to the right, depicted as a winged female figure clad in a flowing chiton, holding a victor's wreath aloft in her right hand and a palm branch in her left. A star appears in the field to the right. To the left, the regnal year date in Egyptian Greek notation occupies the field. The composition is typical of late Alexandrian tetradrachm reverse types celebrating imperial victory. |
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| Additional information |
Year Two of Diocletian's reign in the Alexandrian reckoning marks the very opening of his long restructuring of Roman imperial administration — but the Egyptian mint was already operating under pressures that had nothing to do with political reform. The billon coinage of late third-century Alexandria had been debased so aggressively over the preceding decades that by this point the silver content was negligible, a continuation of the slow monetary collapse that had plagued the province since the 260s.
The Alexandrian mint closed permanently in 296 AD when Diocletian suppressed the revolt of Domitius Domitianus and integrated Egypt fully into the reformed imperial coinage system, ending nearly three centuries of distinctive local bronze and billon production.