AR21 - Diocletian L Γ

Year 3 of Diocletian's reign at Alexandria corresponds precisely to the period just before his sweeping currency reform of 296 AD, which overhauled the debased antoninianus system and introduced the argenteus and the follis. The billon tetradrachm series — of which this is among the final issues — was effectively killed by that reform, ending a coinage tradition at Alexandria stretching back to the Ptolemies.

The L Γ regnal date is the critical detail here. Third-year Alexandrian tetradrachms of Diocletian are not rare, but they occupy a historically specific position: struck in the last window before the monetary restructuring made the local Egyptian coinage obsolete.