AR21 - Aurelian ΕΤΟΥϹ Ε

Year 5 of Aurelian's reign in Egypt corresponds to 273–274 AD, a period immediately following his brutal reconquest of the breakaway Palmyrene Empire. Alexandria had been under Zenobia's control, and the mint's resumption of imperial coinage — on Aurelian's authority — was as much a political statement as an administrative one. The city had surrendered without the sack that Palmyra itself suffered, and production here restarted relatively quickly.

Billon tetradrachms of this reign are notable for their sharply declining silver content, part of the broader Roman currency debasement Aurelian was simultaneously attempting to reform elsewhere in the empire.