AR20 - Diocletian L Δ

Year 12 of Diocletian's reign in Alexandria corresponds precisely to the moment just before the currency reform of 296 AD, when Diocletian overhauled the Egyptian monetary system and forcibly retired the long-running Alexandrian billon tetradrachm series — a coinage that had operated as a closed currency for over two centuries, insulated from the rest of the empire. This piece belongs to the final cohort of that tradition.

The lambda-delta (LD) regnal date places it in that last gasp of production before the reform coin, the post-294 nummus, displaced local issues entirely.